


Slice of Life

by Camelabrakedabra



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Assassins & Hitmen, Child Murderers, Kidnapping, M/M, Some Humor, Some death, Stalking, Suicide mention, occasional abuse mention, sometimes a bit graphic but I'll put notes on how to skip it if you're here for plot, the death comes from chapter 3 onwards
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-07
Updated: 2017-11-26
Packaged: 2018-11-29 02:41:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 18
Words: 46,553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11431476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Camelabrakedabra/pseuds/Camelabrakedabra
Summary: Chenle was rather relieved to be kidnapped by a child hitman on his way back from school. The thought of being snatched up by a cute fourteen year old was something that he was absolutely fine with, and being invited to live with him as his boyfriend and assistant was a definite plus. As long as it got him away from the life where he was expected to be a model son and student, he was fine with anything.





	1. Knife to Meet You

Jisung was a grown up. He was old enough to walk back from school on his own, except for in daylight saving when it would get darker earlier, and he even had his own house keys with a selection of colourful key rings. He was in adult shoe sizes, despite his age, and he would probably start wearing adult clothes soon as well, since he was relatively tall for his age. His parents even commented on how grown up he was, and every time he saw his extended family, they would tell him that he was almost an adult, too. He felt more mature than he probably should be at such a young age, and he was certain that he was going to seem really sophisticated and grown up to everyone he met.

As much of an adult as he thought he was, though, nothing had prepared him for the harsh reality of seeing a bloodbath in an alley. He had been on his way home when a cat had started meowing at him and walking down into the alley, and whilst he wouldn't usually follow an animal just to pet it, he had had a particularly bad day at school and needed a pick-me-up. It had run straight to the end of the alley, or so he had thought, and he had followed it right to the end before crouching down to rub its head. For just a moment, the soft fur of the cat was enough to comfort him and make his day somewhat better.

It had taken him a solid minute to realise that he wasn't quite at the end and that the alley followed around to the left, but he had immediately regretted looking up when the scene in that part of the alley had finally registered in his mind. He had jumped up straight and was frozen there on the spot, as the two men made eye contact and were caught like rabbits in headlights. They had clearly thought that no one was going to walk by where they were butchering the body, but alas, they had been caught tugging the organs out of a corpse by a nine year old boy. Jisung's head had gone dizzy as his eyes flashed from person to person; first the man in the black tank top and sweatpants, who had a Swiss army knife gripped tightly in his right hand and dark bloody stains all up his forearms, then to the man with the red fleece who was holding open the flaps of skin with one hand and lifting a smooth-looking organ out of the torso with the other, then finally to the corpse on the ground, with a face that was shredded to ribbons and blood-soaked skin.

Jisung had straight up pissed himself on the spot, and he hadn't realised until he had checked his shaking legs in case they were about to buckle and had just incidentally seen the dark, damp stains starting to appear on his inner thighs. As much as he tried to stop himself in time to prevent his trousers from being completely soaked through, his efforts were in vain as it had continued until his bladder was completely drained. He had looked up at the two older men with an expression of complete and utter helplessness plastered on his face, but their own expressions had softened significantly as they saw the innocence of the child come out of him. His eyes had welled up with tears, half from embarrassment and half from fear, and Jisung had allowed them to fall silently down his cheeks as he stared at them. He wasn't grown up in the slightest; in fact, he had never felt smaller or so immature in his entire life so far.

"Hey, little boy," one of them had called out to him as he moved away from the corpse. Jisung immediately felt his heart start to race in his chest, but he quickly found that his feet were still glued to the spot and there was no chance of him being able to run away from the scene, even as the man walked towards him. He knelt in front of the nine year old, not even minding that his knees were almost certainly going to end up piss soaked, and he had taken both of the child's hands in his own as he stared up at him with soft eyes. "I'm not going to hurt you. Will you tell me your name?"

Jisung had opened his mouth to speak, but his voice had come out as an awkward, nervous squeak. It took a few attempts to finally get it out, and the man had repeated it back to him until he had earned a nod to confirm that he had pronounced the name correctly. He had followed up with his own name, Sooji, then introduced the man in the red fleece as Minwoo, before asking him for his age. In an attempt to avoid the awkwardness of his voice failing him yet again, Jisung simply held up the required number of fingers, and received a nod of approval. "Now, little Jisung, the man on the floor over there did something really bad. He hurt a load of women, and we had to punish him for him because it's our job to do that. Do you understand?"

He nodded quickly, still stunned to silence, and Sooji smiled warmly at him as he stroked the boy's hands with his own. "Good. So, how about we get you cleaned up, buy you some fresh clothes, then take you out to buy some snacks?"  
"Are you trying to groom me, sir?" he asked timidly without any hesitation, and the older male laughed.  
"We're not trying to groom you, Jisung. We just don't want you to go home in this state, all upset and everything."

Jisung was relieved that his soaked trousers weren't mentioned when it would be so easy for them to point them out or comment on how a boy of his age shouldn't be wetting himself anymore. He gave a little nod and allowed himself to be led through the alley once the body was moved out of his line or vision, then willingly climbed into the back of a van, which already had blankets laid out on the seats ready for him to sit down. All of the windows had been tinted so that no one else could see in but they could see out, presumably for when they did these sorts of jobs, but it was surprisingly comforting to know that he was safe and unseen as they drove through the streets of Seoul.

By the time they got to their first destination, Jisung had calmed down significantly. Sooji and Minwoo had made a point of playing pop music on the way there and had sung along in hopes of encouraging Jisung to do the same, and naturally it had worked wonders on the child. Upon arrival, they made sure to wait for the end of the song that was playing, then Sooji let him out of the van before taking his hand and leading him straight into the house.

It was a relatively big place but looked a lot like any other house in the area, which Jisung quickly figured was probably so that they weren't standing out too obvious to local authorities. Minwoo pointed out how smart Jisung was when he suggested it to them, and gave his head a little pat. As soon as they entered, he was taken through to the bathroom and allowed to shower whilst the men went to find towels and temporary clothing for him to wear ready for their trip to the nearest clothing store.

Jisung was surprised by the way that the clothes he was given were only slightly too big. Minwoo had apologised for the awkward sizing, since they had never had a child at their house before and could hardly make him go out in his wet clothes, but Jisung found that he rather liked jumpers and jeans as a clothing combination.

"Are you ready to go, Jisung?" He gave a nod and so they started on their way towards the nearest clothing store. 

Jisung had never really been conscious of the cost of things when he was with his parents, but he had always been taught not to ask for anything too expensive when he was out with other people. As much as his new friends told him to get anything that he wanted, he found himself checking the price tags as they went around the store until Sooji finally caught him and raised an eyebrow slightly. "What's that you're doing?" he asked, and Jisung immediately tried to come up with an explanation without making it too obvious that he was concerned about price.

"You know you're welcome to get anything you like, right? It's our treat. Pick yourself out something nice that you'd like to wear a lot and then it pays for itself, doesn't it?" He couldn't really argue with that logic. After a few more minutes of looking around the shop, he found himself returning to a baby pink chunky knit jumper and cuffed jeans, and Sooji seemed to be thrilled by the fact that he'd picked something so nice to wear. He also grabbed some fresh boxers and socks, and then some new shoes when prompted to do so. After all, he had ended up with urine in his shoes, as he was reminded from the slight dampness on his feet.

Once it was all paid for, Minwoo politely asked the shop assistant whether Jisung could go to the changing room and put his new clothes on, and upon receiving permission to do so, he made his way in to get dressed. It was strange to be getting completely changed in the store like that, but he figured that it was better than walking around with no underwear for the rest of the day. Besides, it would be a waste to have bought the clothing for him to not wear it.

Finally, they made their way a bit further into the town until they came to an ice cream shop. As much as Jisung tried to avoid seeming too excited, his new friends had quickly figured out that he wanted ice cream as his snack and took him straight in. "What flavour would you like?" Sooji asked as he led Jisung over to the counter. The child's eyes flashed with fascination over the wide variety of flavours, some of which he'd never heard of in his life, but all in all he had to settle for his ultimate favourite.  
"Can I have chocolate, please?"

The ice cream was in his hands in under a minute in one of the biggest cones that the child had ever seen. Jisung's eyes sparkled with gratitude as he bowed low to his friends, and both men immediately ruffled his hair. They then got some ice cream for themselves, plus a few taro drinks for if anyone got thirsty.

Conversation started to flow smoothly as soon as they had taken their seat at a table. It started with questions about Jisung's favourite school topics and eventually touched on more intimate details, such as whether or not he got on with his family. He made sure to answer with as much detail as possible; although he had always been taught not to tell strangers such personal information, he felt a need to impress them seeing as they had told him over and over that he was incredibly intelligent. The discussion about his life continued for around twenty minutes, until his ice cream was almost finished, before it took a turn.

"Now, we have to talk about something very serious for a moment, if that's okay with you." Jisung's eyes snapped up from his cone. He wasn't really great at serious conversations but he figured that since his new friends were treating him like an adult, he should at least give them a chance to say whatever they needed to say. He gave a little nod and tried to force a smile, and Sooji seemingly noticed the slight hesitance as he reached across the table to stroke Jisung's hand.

"The problem is, Jisung, usually if an adult saw us doing what you saw us doing earlier, we would have to do that to them. Adults are nasty and they would have gone and told someone before they even knew why we were doing it," he explained as he offered up a warm smile, "But me and Minwoo like you a lot. You're a very kind and intelligent young man, and the absolute last thing we want to do is hurt you."  
"Are you going to ask me not to tell? Because I won't tell anyone," Jisung promised, and Sooji simply gave a little laugh.

"Not quite, but thank you. We were actually going to ask if maybe you'd like to stay with us for a few days so that we can make sure that you don't have any scary thoughts over what you saw. Just so that we can make sure that they go away before they get scarier."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is probably our longest running fanfic project, since it's been discussed since around February maybe and is still going today with ideas. Whilst it started out with Chenle being abducted (which will be in an upcoming chapter), it's ended up going from little baby killers to them in their early twenties getting married with the help of a wedding planner whom they ended up kidnapping (which probably won't make it into this fic, since it rests on the fate of a lot of graphic plot points).
> 
> I already have this one planned out pretty well so hopefully it should run smoothly, but please expect a fair few chapters for this one!! Also I'd just like to apologise in advance for the chapter titles because they're almost definitely going to just be a load of knife puns.
> 
> Thank you for reading!! <3


	2. Stab in the Dark

Of all the things Chenle expected to happen to him on that particular day, being kidnapped was probably rather low on the list, just above a zombie apocalypse and perhaps an alien invasion.

Those sorts of things just didn't happen to him. His day had started out completely normal, in which he went to school and played with his friends, and there wasn't really any sign that something different would be happening to him until he started on his way home. He had been completely minding his own business when he watched a boy of around his age trying to push his way through a crowd, whilst frantically looking behind him as if he was running from something. He had run straight into Chenle, knocking them both to the ground, and although he had tried to apologise and get them both back on their feet, Chenle was instantly worried about him when he saw the scrapes on the boy's knees and tears in his eyes.

"Is everything okay?" he asked as he helped to brush the boy's clothes down. The boy made a point of flashing a few glances behind him again as he tried to compose himself, but it was clear that he was incredibly panicked over something.  
"I'm sorry, these two men tried to force me to get into their van and I don't know what to do," he stammered breathlessly, and Chenle couldn't help but grow worried for the boy, "I have to get home before they catch up with me; they were chasing me and they could be here at any moment."

He thanked Chenle and made to run past him again, but Chenle immediately grabbed for the boy's wrist before he could move too far away. "Wait, I'll walk you home. That way, we both know that you'll be safe. I have a phone and we can call the police if they chase us, and it'll be a lot harder for them to try to take two of us."

There was still an obvious worry in the boy's eyes, but even he agreed that it was probably for them to walk together than risk getting kidnapped by the men. Chenle was happy to find that the boy had immediately warmed to him and was holding his hand as they walked together, although he figured that it could have been down to the fact that the boy's entire body was shaking with anxiety and he needed something to steady himself. He didn't really mind holding the boy's hand, and he had even taken it upon himself to start talking to him about different things, in hopes of taking his mind off the attempted kidnapping. Chenle was happy to find out that the boy shared his taste in snacks and they even liked the same sports, which made for a lot of conversation to take the edge off the boy's nerves. In that time he had even managed to find out that the boy's name was Jisung, he was a few months younger than himself, and he was an only child.

Eventually, they arrived at Jisung's house and he searched around for his keys in his school bag, before promptly opening the door and thanking Chenle for helping him to get back safely. He called in for his mother but was met by no response at all, although it seemingly didn't bother him too much as he explained that she was probably out of the house. "Can I get you some chocolate milk before you leave? That way we can make sure that the men are far enough away that they don't try to get you too when you go."

It had been enough to tempt Chenle into the house, and Jisung immediately locked the door from the inside once they were in there. It was just to make sure that the men didn't come in if they did find the house, he said, and he immediately took Chenle's hand again as he led him towards the kitchen to get the drinks.

They had spent a while in the kitchen drinking the milk together, since Jisung claimed that his mother didn't like him having drinks in the main room. Conversation continued flowing as they stood together, touching over even more topics in the process, such as school work and favourite animals. Chenle was quickly finding that he was enjoying spending time with his new friend, but after around ten minutes of being there, he found that his head was pounding and he was having a particularly hard time concentrating on what they were chatting about.

Jisung seemingly noticed that there was something wrong, as he asked if he wanted to sit down in the main room and maybe let him call Chenle's parents for him to arrange a lift home. Chenle rejected the offer to start with, but it was gradually getting to be considerably worse to the point where he was struggling to stand, and so he ended up having to be supported through to sit down on the sofa. He was glad that his friend had given him that bit of support, and was especially happy to have Jisung knelt in front of him holding his hands as he tried to steady him.

That was when he passed out. He remembered the sudden dizzy spell and his new friend jolting forward to catch him, but then everything went completely black.

Chenle had no idea of how long he was out, but only that the headache was still there and had he not had the support of whatever was around his chest, he probably would have ended up toppling from the chair that he was sat on. It had taken a few more minutes for him to shake the drowsy feeling, but when he did, he was happy to see that Jisung was still kneeling in front of him.

"Are you okay?" Jisung asked, "You look really dizzy still." It took a moment for him to be able to steady his vision enough so see what was going on around him, but it was soon evident that whilst he assumed that Jisung was holding him up, that wasn't quite the case.

Instead, Chenle was bound to the chair by some sort of rope, with some around his chest, arms, stomach and legs. For a moment, he was certain that it was the effects of whatever made him dizzy in the first place, but it stayed even when the feeling faded to just a headache. No matter how many times he tried to blink it away, the rope still remained. It was a shock to say the least, especially seeing as Jisung hadn't even tried to explain why he was bound to the furniture. Normally, he figured, a person would let him know why that was as soon as he regained consciousness as not to make an innocent situation seem scary, but instead he just stared at Chenle.

"Why am I tied up?" he asked, after giving a reasonable amount of time for Jisung to confess why the situation looked bad but actually wasn't, but instead there was an uncomfortably long silence before he simply offered up a bright smile.

"Support."

That was it. No other attempt at explaining, no elaboration; just 'support'. It suddenly hit Chenle that something was wrong, but he couldn't quite pinpoint what it was. Perhaps it was the way that Jisung had gone from being incredibly chatty to minimalistic since they had arrived back at his house, but then again, that could have easily been his way of dealing with scary situations. There was no way to tell for the moment, but he hoped more than anything that everything was completely innocent.

"How long was I out for?"  
"Twelve hours, maybe."  
" _Twelve hours_?! Are you sure?"  
"Look, I know how long you were out for. I've seen a lot of people black out like that and I know to stay with them when they're out."

Chenle wasn't a genius, but he knew for sure at that point that something was definitely wrong. Was he saying that he just so happened to be around a lot of people who blacked out, or was it something that he was doing to people? There was no way to tell either way, but now that he was suspicious of the situation, he was almost certainly going to end up being extra vigilant in case of slip ups.

"And how long do people tend to feel ill afterwards, then?"  
"Up to a day."  
"And what exactly is this illness called?"

He waited for an answer, but none came and it was clear that the boy was trying more than anything to come up with some form of excuse. Chenle figured that he wasn't really used to being asked by that sort of thing, so he decided that he might as well jump straight into a conclusion and hope for the best. He wasn't very good in the moment, but he was a lot better at analysing a situation when he had the chance to think it over, and now that he'd thought about it, there were very few things that would bring on such a sudden wave of illness.

"Did you... drug me or something?"

Jisung blinked a few times, but then slowly ran a hand through his hair. "I thought I was getting good at this, but I guess I'm still a little rough, huh?" Chenle instantly felt his stomach flip as he stared at his friend in horror.  
"What do you mean by that? Did you lie to me about everything to get me in here?"

Another pause. He stared at Chenle in silence as he seemingly tried to figure out how much he was allowed to reveal before it became too much, but eventually he gave a little shake of his head. "I didn't lie about my favourite things. But the men were actually chasing me a few years ago so the worry was sort of for nothing."  
"A few years ago? So all of that was acting?" Chenle's head was swimming with questions about the situation, but his thoughts were soon hit with the biggest anti-climax of his life as Jisung laughed awkwardly and nodded.  
"We were playing pretend, though. They were my dads; they adopted me one day and I lived with them until recently."

That was where he decided to leave it. As much as Chenle tried to push him to give further information, Jisung straight up refused to tell him any more until finally he asked why he was drugged, to which he responded by giving a simple statement about how he needed Chenle dead.

"I don't really want to kill you, though, if I'm being honest," he admitted, "But I sort of have to. No one's made it to waking up before, for starters, and now you know a lot." Chenle narrowed his eyes slightly as he tried to judge what the comment meant, but eventually he decided that it was just easier to ask.  
"Why do you have to kill me? I mean, I'm not entirely against it, but I'm just a bit confused."  
It had seemingly thrown Jisung off, but his wary expression only stayed for a brief moment before he began to explain.

"The thing is, I'm employed to kill criminals. You're probably the first petty theft I've been assigned, seeing as you've only really stolen little things and companies haven't pressed charges, but you're on the security cameras so you're on my list. And I just don't get it really, because my research is telling me that you're from a really rich family, yet you steal things that you can afford. You buy yourself five hundred yuan worth of toys, but then you steal sweets that aren't even worth five yuan."

Chenle couldn't help but give a sheepish smile. If his hands were free, he probably would have run them through his hair or something in an attempt to hide how awkward he felt about the whole situation; he'd never imagined that it would come back to bite him, and his younger self had always figured that if it did rise, his family would be able to get him out of the situation. Yet, that wasn't really something that could happen for him whilst he was in his current position. He figured that it would be rather awkward to call his mother and ask her to bail him out of being murdered anyway, even if he had been able to do so.

"I don't want to sound greedy," he mumbled as he tried to refrain from looking anywhere in the general direction of Jisung, "It probably does, but I don't know why I do it. I think I used to expect that it'd get my parents' attention, but it stopped being about that and I don't know what it _is_ about anymore."

Jisung seemed to be surprised by the answer, but also seemed to understand a lot more already. He let out a soft sigh and sat down in front of Chenle, not speaking a word, and so Chenle eventually cleared his throat and decided to speak up again. "I mean, if you'd like to, you're welcome to kill me now. I am a bit of a spoiled brat and I don't think my parents are going to notice for a week or so anyway." It was genuine but Jisung's eyes immediately snapped up towards his face as if he was judging him for making a distasteful joke. His eyes were narrowed as his mouth started slowly edging towards a scowl.  
"Don't speak like that, Chenle, life is important. It's not something that you should want to throw away this easily."

"Then why do you kill?" That question was apparently crossing the line, as Jisung started to shake his head frantically and insisted that it wasn't something that he was ready to discuss at the moment. It was personal, or so he said, and the last thing he wanted to do was end up giving a huge sob story and have Chenle feeling bad about his life so far. Besides, certain parts of his story required him telling Chenle about things that he simply wouldn't understand.

They ended up sitting in complete silence for a little while, in which Jisung sat staring at the wall as if he was reconsidering his decisions for the day, and Chenle simply tried to catch his attention when he could. As much as he was initially confused and rather upset about the fact that his new friend had essentially kidnapped, drugged and tried to kill him, he was now more worried about Jisung than anything. His face was showing a sadness that he'd never really seen on a person before, and it made Chenle feel as if his heart was breaking.

"Can I suggest an alternative? To murdering you?" There was a long pause in which Chenle considered his answer options, but eventually he just gave a little nod, and so Jisung took a deep breath before continuing, "I don't want to murder you for something so small, so maybe I can take someone else off my list for this month instead and you can stay here as my partner instead? Like a sort of house husband, since you don't have to kill or anything, except we're not married and we don't have to be in love."

It was absolutely obvious that it was as much Jisung feeling sorry for him as it was him not wanting to murder for petty theft. If he was being honest, it was a complete no-brainer for Chenle. Whilst he wouldn't have minded death as an option, there was something about Jisung that was incredibly sweet. He couldn't quite put his finger on exactly what it was that tempted him, between the awkward mushroom-like haircut, the cute little smiles , or the way that he seemed nervous about asking him to be his partner, but it was enough to convince him to stay. After all, staying alive with a boy who seemed like an absolute sweetheart outside of his job seemed to be a much better option than school work and going home to an empty house any day.

The bonus to his response was the way that Jisung's face lit up instantly as he agreed to it. The younger boy immediately moved towards him again to remove his constraints and informed Chenle that he would be making lots of tasty snacks for dinner, and that was that. Jisung's trust was in him completely right from the start, and he was happy to be giving up his past life for his new friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bit of a weak one, though it's something I've been trying to work on since I started work over a month ago!! Even with four days off it's been hard to keep on top of things and I ended up spending all of my time off with the kids anyway instead of writing, and it's hard to keep working when there's kids running around everywhere on your day off. 
> 
> It's given some additional ideas for this, though, since I've worked with a range of kids over the past few weeks, from the ones who tell you that they love you within five minutes of knowing you, through to the ones who still refuse to acknowledge you three weeks later, but we'll see where they can slot in!!
> 
> Thank you for your patience, and hopefully the next chapter will come a lot sooner and will be a lot stronger in general!! <3


	3. Slash Fic

As expected, Chenle's parents hadn't even noticed that he was gone for a solid two weeks.

It was at that point that Jisung was forced to keep him inside the house. It had come without complaint, though, seeing as Chenle rather liked taking on the house husband role, and he had made sure to live up to the role as best as possible. Jisung had never really asked for it, but he was insistent on cooking, cleaning and generally being there for emotional support.

He hadn't quite expected that Jisung would be under so much stress, admittedly. From what they'd discussed when he first arrived, the job seemed to just involve killing eight people from his monthly list and getting all of his expenses paid for as a result. It was a quick job, seeing as it never involved travelling too far outside of Seoul, and usually it was over before it had officially begun. Yet, Jisung always appeared to be tense whenever he got home. Chenle found himself getting more and more concerned for his friend as time went on; as much as he could rub his shoulders and talk it through with him to make everything seem alright, he was somewhat worried about the effects his job had had on his wellbeing already.

After all, the mother that Jisung had called for when they had first arrived at the house together was non-existent. His parents had died when he was ten, apparently, and his adoptive parents weren't around either. He hadn't gone into much detail about the latter, but Chenle figured that whenever he was ready to talk about them, he would bring it up in conversation. As a result, though, he'd been on his own for almost two years, trying to handle the world on his own without anyone to take care of him. The stress over those two years was probably ridiculously high, as far as Chenle was concerned, so he was more than happy to step in as his third caretaker, even though the damage was probably already done.

Of course, it was worth a try to make Jisung feel more relaxed, even if it was in vain. Chenle made sure to be as bubbly and cute as possible whenever his friend arrived home and quickly learned when bringing up work wasn't a good idea. Most nights were, as a result, spent cuddled up next to each other as Jisung played with strands of Chenle's hair and asked him about his day instead. It was almost the same conversation each night, as a result, but Jisung seemed to find comfort in the familiarity and so Chenle made sure to give him that same positive outlook whenever he was asked.

It took around three or four months before Jisung finally opened up about his feelings a bit more.

He was even quieter than usual when he came back from work that day and had eaten dinner with very few words at all before going for a shower. As always, Chenle followed him through to the bathroom and hopped into the shower with him to help wash his back and hair, although when Jisung turned to face him, he couldn't help but let out a surprised gasp. There was a shallow slash from his collarbone to his navel, and he gave a slight wince as the water trickled over the wound. There were some areas where big droplets of blood had dried on the surface of the wound, and others where the blood had dried in splattered patches on his skin.

Chenle didn't know what to say. He was stood not knowing what to do with himself; part of him wanted to make a dash out of the room and hide until the blood was washed from the surface of Jisung's skin, whereas another part wanted more than anything to nurse the wound and make him feel better. Jisung seemingly noticed the fear on his friend's face as he saw it, and chewed his lower lip as he tried to figure out how he should approach the situation. "I'm sorry if it's scaring you," he finally uttered as he moved to turn away again, but Chenle quickly grabbed for his arm as he was hit by the realisation that he should be learning to get over it when that was part of his new life. After all, there wasn't much that he could do to change the reality of the situation.

Jisung seemed confused for a fraction of a second, but Chenle simply held up the sponge as if asking to help him to clean it. When the younger boy gave a slight nod, he began to rub at the blood surrounding the wound, before giving a few very gentle dabs over the cuts. He monitored Jisung's expression the entire time, making sure that he wasn't wincing too much from the pressure, and was absolutely relieved to find that it didn't seem to hurt too much.

"How did you manage to get hurt like that?" Chenle asked delicately once the wound was clean. He made sure to move a bit closer and press a hand to Jisung's cheek in hopes of portraying his concern effectively. There was a moment of silence in which Jisung simply stared into Chenle's eyes, before giving a soft sigh and running a hand through his hair.  
"He wasn't quite as drowsy as I thought. It happens sometimes; they get that you've drugged them and they try to fight back before they go down, and I couldn't move out of the way in time today."

Chenle let out a little hiss of discomfort as his eyes flashed between the wound and Jisung's eyes. The explanation was as superficial as possible as Jisung tried not to give the bloody details of the kill, but it ended with him having to try and mop up blood in an alleyway before tending to his own wounds, after having left them for around a half hour to soak through his clothes. Although it wasn't explicitly said, Chenle could tell that it took quite a lot to stop the bleeding on his chest. It was obvious from the way that Jisung was brushing over the details and avoiding discussing it, and it simply made his heart sink to think about it.

The topic was dropped for a while as they finished washing up and got out of the shower. It was hard to come up with more positive topics in the meantime, and so it ended up coming up again once they were dried and dressed in their pajamas, especially since it hurt too much to leave the wound out to air, and so Chenle was forced to dress it as they chatted about Jisung's work again.

"Do you think that maybe you'd like to witness one of the deaths?" Jisung finally asked after a while, "It probably sounds a bit weird, but if you ever want to join me it might make some of the kills a lot easier to handle, plus then if you did ever accidentally stumble upon it one time, you probably wouldn't be as scared."

The thought of it did scare him a bit, if he was honest. Chenle often completely shut down when he was around blood and didn't know what to do, but it wasn't exactly like the situation would get better for him if he didn't witness something like that. He figured that if nothing else, he would gain the experience to be able to overlook it if his friend came home covered in blood, and he might even be able to wash the blood-soaked clothes that he occasionally caught Jisung stuffing into the washer late at night. It was a good thing to be able to get over his dislike for blood, he decided, and so he simply gave a little nod of acceptance.

"Can you maybe tell me what sort of things to expect, though?" he asked timidly as he shuffled to lay next to Jisung. The younger boy appeared to have expected the question, seeing as he knew that Chenle was generally rather uncomfortable around blood, and so he simply wrapped an arm around his friend as he started to explain his work in detail.

"There's a lot of different styles we can go for when it comes to kills. The most popular are poisons, if you're good with speed and restricting people, and shooting. Not really my favourites, seeing as it can cause a big scene and even if you shoot in a hidden area, you're going to probably make a lot of mess," Jisung explained. It made a lot of sense, as far as Chenle was concerned. Blood splatters everywhere made for a difficult clean up, and so it would be easy enough for them to be caught out. On top of that, it would be easy enough to track a gun down by its bullets if the corpse was found and the bullet retrieved, and poisons would be easy enough to find in the bodies after death, so it would end up being messy in more than one way.

Chenle was proud of the fact that he managed to understand that sort of thing right from the start. It came to him naturally, it seemed, and he was actually finding it really interesting to learn about the weapons so far. Whilst Jisung seemingly expected him to not be too interested in the topic of conversation, he was amazed to find that Chenle wanted to know more; the older boy's eyes lit up when he mentioned that there were an array of other weapons available to choose from when completing his job.

"Things like katakanas and clubs are effective but tend to be messy, too. Half a person or a bashed in skull usually result in a lot of problems, unless you're skilled in the arts of cleaning up." Another messy sort. Chenle's stomach churned when he imagined the results of those sorts of weapons, and he was forced to try and distract his mind as not to start to feel queasy over it. He couldn't even watch animations involving those sorts of things, nevermind witness it in person, and so he was absolutely relieved that it wasn't Jisung's style to use those sorts of weapons.

He was quick to change the conversation towards Jisung's own style, despite the fact that he already had some ideas of what his signature methods were. Jisung quickly realised from Chenle's tone that he didn't want to know anything else about the gory methods of murder, and so continued past that particular topic without dwelling on it for too long.

"My favourites are to either drug someone in public and offer to take them home before dissecting them, or luring them back here for something quick and painless. As much as you'd expect blades to be a bad choice for kills, with the amount of bleeding and all, sometimes a small puncture can do wonders and it makes it a lot harder to trace back to you if their body is found, in comparison to licensed or stolen weapons, for example."

Jisung insisted that that was going to be his weapon choice for when Chenle watched him taking the life. He was aiming to avoid getting too bloody from the kill, although he knew who his next kill was going to be, so he couldn't necessarily promise a pain-free death. He made sure to give Chnele as many details about the next victim as possible whilst he conducted his research on them over the following week, just so that nothing came as a surprise to him, and made sure to emphasise exactly why they had a bounty on their head.

To say that Chenle was nervous about the entire situation would be a complete understatement. When it came to the day of the murder, he nervously sat on the chair in the corner of the room with his hands on his knees as he waited for Jisung to arrive home, but he could feel his right leg jiggling uncomfortably as he stayed glued to that spot. It took longer than expected for the younger boy to return with a grown adult man in tow, but Chenle quickly recognised the tactic that was used. It started out with Jisung admitting that his mother wasn't going to be back for a few hours and he was scared to be in the house on his own when the men who were trying to abduct him could possibly break into his house. Of course, the man agreed to look after him for a few hours until she arrived back but warned that in the future he should be careful about inviting strangers into his house, since not all of them would necessarily be as nice as he was.

Jisung offered a drink as he told the man a bit more about himself, then eventually invited him to the dining room, since his mother wouldn't be happy if she found out that they were sat in the main room with food or drinks. They started on the way to the room that Chenle was sat in, whilst the older boy sat waiting in anticipation, and as expected he could hear the footsteps and talking gradually getting closer. He took in a deep breath as he waited for someone to open the door to see him sat waiting for them, but nothing came straight away. In fact, the footsteps _and_ speaking had completely stopped, leaving the entire house in complete silence. Chenle was a bit thrown off, since he knew that they were right outside the door just a few seconds ago, and so he spent a while considering whether or not he should go out to check on them, but after some thought he decided to simply let his friend do his job without meddling.

It took all of Chenle's strength to stay quiet when he knew that something was wrong, especially after the accident that Jisung had been in just a week beforehand. Seconds turned to minutes and Chenle waited anxiously for some sign of life in the house. Eventually he couldn't hold back anymore and ended up calling out for Jisung, only to be faced with the one cry that scared him more than blood.

"Chenle, please help me."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one was filled with around twenty different holes that I was struggling to fill in and it was going to end up being around 5000 words, but it's finally all sorted and we've split this chapter into two rather neatly, so hopefully it shouldn't be too long before the next chapter comes along!!
> 
> Starting from the next chapter I'm going to pick a special code for covering up the murdering sections for those who aren't feeling them (although the ones with detail will be rather necessary for the plot) - it'll be in bold but I'll point this out before the chapter starts too in order to avoid any confusion
> 
> Thank you for reading!! <3


	4. Stab-le Condition

Chenle pretty much threw himself at the door when he heard Jisung calling him, but was absolutely relieved to find that the man he'd drugged had just passed out and fallen on top of him as he tried to get him into the room where Chenle was sitting.

Jisung didn't seem happy at all.

Apparently the man hadn't seemed too heavy when he decided to bring him back to their house, but alas, he was rather muscular and ended up crushing Jisung underneath him when he fell. It was particularly irritating because Jisung could barely shift the dead weight from on top of himself, and even more so when it ended up taking both of them to drag the body into the room. Jisung made quick work of tying the man to a chair, and then they were left sitting together whilst the man was slumped unconscious on the chair.

The elder boy soon came to decide that the best course of action was to distract himself from what was inevitably coming up next. As much as he thought he was ready to see such a thing, in the moment it was starting to seem more and more scary, to the point where he could hear his elevated heartbeat over the silence of the room. He could see a selection of both blunt and sharp knives on the table near where the man was bound, and frankly it left him feeling incredibly on edge. "Are you hurt from the fall, Jisung? Do you have any bruises?" Chenle began to check over his friend's body, even when he insisted that he wasn't really hurt from any of it, other than a little bump to his knee. It wasn't starting to swell at all and he could put weight on that leg, so it wasn't going to be damaged.

He then tried changing the subject to other things, such as what Jisung had done that day and what he was planning to do afterward. Whilst Jisung tried to explain everything, it didn't exactly work how Chenle had expected with calming his nerves. The conversation had unfortunately turned to the way in which he managed to get the man to come back to their house, which absolutely wasn't what Chenle wanted to hear in such a moment of tension. If anything, it simply made the situation worse and he was left gradually feeling more and more nervous about everything until finally he couldn't hold the more direct questions back any longer.

"So are you going to make this one nice and easy? A quick stab whilst he's still unconscious? Something that will only take a minute or two to leave him dead?" Chenle's voice was full of hope, but he was quickly faced by an awkward expression from Jisung in response. It was clear that he was trying to come up with a way to avoid causing further distress, but eventually he figured that there was no point in sugar coating the situation.  
"Chenle, the thing with this guy is--"  
"I know what he did, but you've caught him now; is there any point in torturing him some more?"

Jisung tried to come up with something more to say, but eventually just ran a hand through his hair as he gave a sigh of defeat. He struggled to make eye contact with Chenle but brought himself to do it as he began to explain his reasoning, although Chenle could obviously see how pained he looked over the situation. "I know you don't want to see someone be tortured, but he's assaulted so many girls, Chenle, he needs to be made to feel the pain that he's put them through."

"But he's not going to have to live with it," Chenle protested, "It's a waste of time to torture him."  
"It'll make his victims sleep a bit better at night knowing that he didn't just get the easy way out."

As much as the older boy tried to argue against it, Jisung was absolutely set with his decision. He was going to make it as clean as possible, as not to bother Chenle too much, but at the same time he had to cause a bit of pain in order to make the man's last moments the worst he'd ever experienced. In the end, Chenle decided that it was just best to stay quiet and turn his head if it got to be too much, although Jisung did allow the compromise of duct taping the man's mouth to avoid too much screaming, which calmed his nerves a bit.

It only took a short while for the man to regain consciousness, in comparison to the twelve hours that it'd taken Chenle back when he had been in that siutation. He was taken down with a tranquiliser injection rather than drugs, Jisung told him, and so it'd worked as more of a sudden job rather than gradual. It also meant that they didn't need to wait in anticipation for hours, and they could probably get it finished by around six o'clock.

They sat quietly until the man's vision was stable enough to realise that he was tied to a chair with Jisung sat in front of him looking completely cool and collected. He seemed to be a little bit thrown off by the blank expression on Jisung's face, although the panicking didn't start until he noticed the knives laid out near where he was sitting. Jisung allowed him to thrash and try to scream for help until he was too tired out to be able to continue, then finally stood and made his way over to where the man was sat.

It was rather terrifying for Chenle to see Jisung stood so menacingly over the man, and the sight alone sent shivers running up his spine. The lighting in the room cast dark shadows over his face, and the way he stood over his victim just made him seem even taller than he usually was. It was only made worse by the fact that he was incredibly calm about the entire situation, in both his mannerisms and his tone of voice.

"Gwon Hyojeong, you know exactly what you did, don't you?"  
"Mmph?"  
"Don't 'mmph' me. You know exactly what you've done and exactly why you're here. You're hardly a saint, are you?"

The low tone that Jisung was using was particularly scary, but it somehow managed to make the penny drop for the man, as he quickly came to understand why he needed to be punished for his actions. The man tried to say something through the duct tape, but Jisung simply stood in silence as he waited for him to calm once again. Once the room fell silent again, he slowly made his way over to the table and retrieved a stack of paper, before taking it back to the man again and holding up one at a time. From what Chenle could see, it appeared to be a selection of photos of girls, along with their names and ages. He could see that the man grew increasingly distressed with every photo, until finally Jisung held up the last one and tossed the others carelessly to the side.

"Now, this girl here was the final straw. If it wasn't bad enough that you've attacked over forty women, you chose to not only assault this woman on public transport in front of her younger sister, but then beat her when she went to leave for rejecting you," Jisung explained, "I'm surprised that the police haven't caught you yet, seeing as your face is on countless CCTV cameras, but that's why her sister hired me, unfortunately for you. I've been doing this job for five years and I've never once come face to face with a person as disgusting as you are, so you're not exactly going to get the easy way out today, sir."

**From the way that he'd started out, Chenle was expecting him to give an explanation as to what was coming next, even though it seemed more like a movie trope than anything else, but instead Jisung maintained his calm composure as he made his way back towards the table. Both Chenle and the man stared in anticipation as he looked over each of the knives, brushing his fingertips over the handles of each one as he went, before eventually picking up one of the largest ones from the collection. It was ridged with thirty two blunt tips, and he made sure to show the man each one of them right from the start before grabbing his chin, staring directly into his eyes, and moving the knife towards him.**

**Chenle felt his heart rise up into his throat as Jisung plunged the knife straight into the man's stomach and twisted it around inside of him. He closed his eyes to avoid seeing the pained expression on the man's face, and kept them closed as he waited for a sign that Jisung had stopped drawing the knife back and pushing it back in an inch or two away from the last puncture. He could tell that he was still stabbing from the sounds that the man was making, plus the way that Jisung had yet to move away from his body, and so simply waited it out in hopes that it wouldn't last for too much longer. Jisung stabbed around nine or ten times, if the muffled screams were anything to go by, before he finally stopped and moved back to sit opposite the man once again.**

**When Chenle's eyes finally opened, he could see that the man was panting heavily and had the knife still sticking out of his stomach. It was a lot lower than the first stab wound, he noted, and it was inserted diagonally so that the handle was almost touching the man's chest. He was bleeding out rather slowly in comparison to what Chenle had seen in films, although from what he could see it was agonising for him to have such a drawn out death, rather than falling dead within seconds. He would have much preferred it if the man's death happened quickly, he decided, and so he sat hoping more than anything that the wait would pass quickly.**

**Of course, that wasn't going to be the case, though.**

**"Now," Jisung began with a smile, "You have approximately fifteen minutes until you die. It'll be painful and I'm certain you'll regret taking me up on the offer of drinks and those snacks on the way home. Food and drink makes it a lot more painful for you. It's going to be even more painful, though, because every so often I'm going to play with the knife a bit, just so that you don't forget how it feels to have it inside of you. I'm sure your victims won't have forgotten how you hurt them either."**

**Jisung decided that it was time to move away from the man and start talking with Chenle instead, about absolutely anything in the world. It was a way of making the man feel unimportant and insignficant, Chenle figured, since he was discussing things that came up in their daily lives, such the upkeep of the house and any tasks that they needed to do over the following week. They needed to go grocery shopping over the next few days, the window in their bedroom probably needed to be resealed again, and Jisung was considering taking him to a funfair that was popping up a few miles away soon. It was generally just small talk, and it had not only succeeded in making the bleeding process quick for the two of them, but also helped to calm Chenle's mood again.**

**He didn't even mind so much when Jisung occasionally went back to the man's body to move the knife around, just as he'd said he would, whilst still maintaining the conversation. Jisung had decided to give it twenty minutes before checking the man's pulse, and he was happy to find that his death had come just as easily as expected. "Give me five minutes to clean up the mess and then we can go for dinner," he called out to Chenle as he pulled on latex gloves and began to wrap the body up in a plastic sheet.**

Chenle decided that it was best not to watch the clean up process at all, instead opting to keep his eyes on the wall. Although he hadn't reacted too well to watching the job being done, he figured that he'd taken it rather well in general and didn't exactly want to ruin it right at the end by looking at the corpse again. He knew that he wouldn't even have to by the time that Jisung had completely finished up, seeing as there was a chute in the room to discard of the evidence, and so he remained patient until his friend gave the word to say that it was all clear.

"You did so well today, and I'm so proud of you," Jisung finally said once it was all clean again, "You didn't even cry over it." He made his way over to crouch in front of Chenle and made sure to show that he was sanitising his hands before he gave his cheek a gentle stroke. Chenle leaned into the touch as he gave a little smile, and they spent a few seconds gazing lovingly into each other's eyes until Jisung finally suggested that they should get on with their day again.

That was the last they spoke of it all night. Chenle had been absolutely relieved when they took their shower together and ordered a pizza to the house for dinner instead of spending time cooking something up. Jisung had invited him to cuddle up to his chest as they laid on the sofa together and watched old films, and so Chenle made sure to shuffle up so that they were chest to chest. It was strangely romantic, seeing as they were both boys and neither of them had expressed an interest in other boys, but neither seemed to mind and so they ended up spending the rest of the night there together, cuddled up close even when they finally fell asleep.

It had worked for now to be able to make him feel better about the entire situation, and as it stood, Chenle felt that he was starting to get a bit more comfortable with his friend's job.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the next one; it was mostly just a tester for the killing bits and setting up the other chapters, but it'll result in something cute soon enough if you stay with me!!
> 
> Thank you for reading!! <3


	5. Backstabber

For the most part, Chenle managed to get over the killings.

Jisung tried to make sure that most of them were done out of the house, but when he did have to bring victims home, they were almost always dead before Chenle even noticed that they were there. His friend was rather skilled in the art of tranquilising them before severing an artery, and he was even better with the clean up. Fifteen second deaths quickly became his specialty, and as time moved on, Jisung was only getting more and more efficient. It was probably aided more by the fact that Chenle would reward him each time he made a quick, mess-free kill with cuddle nights and homemade food, but obviously the older boy preferred to think that it was out of courtesy more than it was based on operant conditioning.

In fact, there was only one more murder that he'd intended on making painful over the few months following the one that Chenle had witnessed, and it was one that was incredibly personal to him. Jisung had fully intended on making it quick like the others, but whilst he was in the process of researching the guy, he found that he had physically abused and potentially killed a boy who was in his class at school. Jisung had known the boy since they were four years old, so it was absolutely heartbreaking for him to find out that someone so sweet was murdered so heartlessly for just being a child. As far as he was concerned, it wasn't right for an adult to beat a child over choosing to play with his toys after completing his homework for the night, even if he was a bit behind in his classes, so he personally took on the responsibility of making his friend's murderer regret every single time he touched the child. He needed to have the guy look into his eyes as he took his life, he said, and admittedly Chenle couldn't even find the heart to argue against it. He probably would have done the exact same thing if he was in that position, frankly.

Jisung had set out with an air of confidence that morning as he went to lure the man back to his house. He'd specifically planned to tell the man that he was one of his son's friends, seeing as it would probably lead him to be trusted that bit easier, and he'd come up with a selection of ways to complete the kill if it turned out that the man had kept up with his own kidnap and murder case, back when he first left his parents' house. This time, though, Chenle specifically listened out for the sound of his friend getting back. Whilst he trusted that he was able to do his job properly, there was a niggling little part of the older boy that was telling him to watch out for Jisung; after all, the man had killed children in the past, so there was always a chance that he would try to hurt Jisung too.

He had quickly decided that he would sit in on that kill, just in case something happened. Chenle struggled to describe exactly what the issue was, but he was left with an uncomfortable feeling when he heard them talking in the kitchen. It was one that he'd never really felt before, but left him on edge in a way that couldn't really be shaken. He wasn't exactly prepared to let his friend get hurt because he'd chosen to ignore the feeling that told him that something wasn't right.

The process went as always, though; it took just a few minutes for the man to drop to the floor unconscious, and Jisung was quick to start taking him towards the designated killing room. Chenle trotted out of the room to help this time, which was certainly met with appreciation as the younger boy came to realise that the body was a lot heavier than expected. It ended up taking both of them to get the man over to the room, and even then it was hardly what they'd describe as being easy.

"He's such a lump," Jisung groaned as they shuffled together. It was an uncomfortably long walk over there with someone so heavy in tow, and he aired his regret for choosing the worst victims to bring home on the way there. Finally they managed to get him into the room, but Jisung insisted that his precious Chenle should relax to the side as he moved the man from the floor to the chair. There was a bit of a back and forth between them as Chenle insisted that he wanted to help out, but eventually the younger boy just about managed to get the body onto the chair on his own before searching for the rope to tie him up.

That was when it hit the fan.

He'd dropped the rope under the table and so ended up having to get underneath the table to retrieve it, and in that time Chenle suddenly noticed that the man's head began to loll around a bit. Just as he went to mention it to Jisung, he audibly stirred and the younger boy immediately snapped around towards him with a look of surprise on his face as he shot up from the floor empty handed. Jisung cursed under his breath as he whispered that he must not have injected enough tranquiliser to keep someone of his size unconscious for long enough, and so he was forced to frantically grab for a knife instead to get straight to work before the drowsiness wore off.

**He moved forward with the intent of stabbing the man straight in the throat, but apparently his victim had caught onto the fact that he was about to die, as he immediately flung a heavy arm out in Jisung's direction and knocked the child back before he had the chance to make any contact. Of course, Jisung was caught by surprise, since he'd never really been thrown backwards by a victim before, and Chenle could see the sudden panic in his friend's face as he leapt forwards to stab any part of the man's body that he had access to.**

**It ended up slashing down the man's forearm as he instinctively moved it up to cover himself, and whilst he let out a groan of pain, he still managed to use the chair to pull himself up to stand in front of Jisung. Chenle could feel his heart stop for a moment as he realised how tall the man actually was when he was standing up, and if he was being honest, it was more intimidating than anything to have someone who was still rather dazed and disorientated standing and trying to actively defend himself against Jisung. Of course, Jisung was more skilled in kills as opposed to self defense, and so he backed towards the wall behind him as not to have to worry about the man attacking him from another angle, although he quickly realised his mistake as the man moved towards him more.**

**Chenle felt time slow down. The man had found a knife underneath his hand as he grabbed for the table, and he immediately switched it to his dominant hand, holding it at arm's length as he began to wave it towards Jisung. On more than one occasion, he was close to hitting Jisung, but the boy just about managed to flinch away in time before any contact was actually made. As Korean wasn't his first language, Chenle struggled to understand the slurred, barely coherent words that the man spewed out as he tried to slash Jisung in the process, but he could feel bile starting to work up his throat as he watched the man manage to catch his friend's arms few times.**

**"Lele! Please do something!" Jisung called out as he stepped backwards towards the corner again. The panic in his expression was showing Chenle that he had no back up plan for how to deal with the situation, and he frankly wasn't in a position where he'd be able to improvise. Jisung was exhibiting a fear that Chenle had never seen on him before, and the man was quick to start lashing out at him with the blade when he realised that he had the upper hand in the situation. It was clear that it was an instinct to stay alive, since the man was using the knife in a way that was generally inefficient for doing much more than escaping, and once or twice he did manage to catch Jisung's arms with the blade again.**

**For a moment, Chenle was frozen to the spot in fear. He didn't know how to handle the situation, and he didn't know how to take the man down. He just knew that above anything else, he really needed to save Jisung. Although he'd originally been taken with the intent of being killed, over the months that they'd spent together he had really come to be fond of his captor. They'd bonded to the point where he genuinely wanted Jisung to be around and had absolutely no intention of leaving, and he knew that it wasn't a symptom of Stockholm syndrome, since Jisung had never done anything to hurt him. This was his new life, and as much as he disliked the fact that it had to involve death, he completely understood why it was necessary so he was willing to embrace it now that he had to.**

**There weren't too many options for him. Talking with the victim would probably leave them both dead, whilst other methods of taking the attention off Jisung would probably result in even more panicked slashing. It was clear that the victim wasn't skilled when it came to using knives, but the sharp knife would probably still end up cutting them both to ribbons. Besides, the man had left him alone so far, since Chenle had stayed out of the way, and so getting the attention on himself was likely to be the most stupid idea when the man's adrenaline had already kicked in.**

**Chenle had gone completely blind with panic over the lack of options. He finally just grabbed for a knife and lashed out, successfully slashing the back of the man's neck, then proceeded to stab over and over again just above his shoulder blades once his own adrenaline had properly kicked in. He could hear the pained screams drowning the silence of the room, but for a moment it felt surreal and distant as he drove the blade through flesh in quick succession. Nothing else mattered anymore; he was there to kill, rather than disarm, and this was going to be the first time he'd take a life. He'd accepted that reality in just a matter of seconds.**

**The stabbing continued until the man was on the floor in a pool of his own blood, and whilst Chenle couldn't exactly tell whether or not he was dead already by that point, he still continued to ram the knife into the body with as much force he could muster. He needed to be absolutely sure of the fact that the man wouldn't be getting up again at any point.**

"Chenle," Jisung finally called out in an unusually timid voice, "I think he's dead now."

That was the only thing that made him stop. He was left kneeling in silence, absolutely drenched in blood with the knife in his right hand, shaking so hard that he could barely hold his body up any longer. His hormones were running high, and as much as he wanted to cry, he quickly found that no tears were threatening to fall just yet. Jisung stared at him with a mix of horror and disbelief on his face, and the two remained silent and frozen on the spot for a while before finally Jisung moved towards him to grab his cheeks and kiss him hard on the lips.

It was a kiss that both boys had needed; one filled with genuine love and appreciation. Although Chenle hadn't quite expected to have feelings for the younger boy in that sort of way, he quickly found that the kiss was exactly what he needed right now. It was something that left his anxiety over the kill completely melting away, and even if he didn't end up having romantic feelings towards Jisung, it was a sign of their bond as friends. For the moment, he wasn't too sure about how their relationship was going to progress once they parted, but it didn't exactly matter to them right now as they just held each other and shared a number of firm, loving kisses and waited for the heightened emotions to calm back down.

Jisung hadn't even minded that there was blood all over his face when they kissed, even though it was almost certainly going to end up on his face too, and he didn't even seem all too bothered when Chenle's hands grabbed for his shoulders mid-kiss. It had just drawn them closer until they had ended up pressed chest to chest with hands grasping desperately for anything that would keep them from parting for just a few seconds longer. It had ended up lasting for a good few minutes until Jisung finally drew away, and had finished with the most genuine smile that Chenle had shared with anyone in his life.

That was the start of a romantic fling between them. It was an unusual way to kick things off, as far as Chenle was concerned, but the kiss had sparked something in the pit of his stomach that made him know that it was the right decision to still be by Jisung's side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so the bolded bit is pretty important for this chapter, but it's basically the start of a new look on things for Chenle, both when it comes to killing and his feelings towards Jisung
> 
> I'm feeling that there's probably only going to be a couple more chapters from this point and the rating might end up changing at some point, but I'm not entirely sure just yet; there's a few things that I want to happen that were from later points in the actual original fic idea before it finishes, but I'm not sure how it's actually going to end up getting to the definite finishing point at the moment
> 
> Hopefully it should work out rather well, though, and there should be at least five more chapters of killer boyfriends on the way!!
> 
> Thank you for reading!! <3


	6. Carving the Path

Chenle had had a change of heart when it came to the killing from that point onwards.

Initially, he was absolutely certain that he was done with the whole killing thing. His first kill was going to be his last and he didn't want to be forced to think about it anymore, either. Chenle still had a huge issue with the thought of it to start with, although he was absolutely relieved by the fact that he didn't end up with nightmares following the incident, and as a result he quickly decided that it was best to leave it to Jisung once again.

On the contrary, though, there was certainly something strange that ticked in him following that kill. It wasn't something that he realised was present for a good month or so, but when he realised, it hit him like a brick. He was left feeling a slight numbness as he was stood watching Jisung cleanly slitting the arteries in the back of a woman's legs in order to make for a quick death, and he found that he was unable to look away from the scene in front of him. Chenle was rather uncomfortable with his own sudden change of heart, seeing as he'd quickly gone from a huge discomfort around blood to strangely wanting to see more of it. It was a fascination of sorts, and whilst he was rather glad that he didn't need to close his eyes anymore, it wasn't a position that he'd ever expected himself to be in.

He wasn't exactly complaining though. It made helping out with transporting the victims to the killing room a lot easier and as a result he was also able to help Jisung clean up, too, so that they would be able to spend more time together outside of his new boyfriend's job.

It had taken a while longer for him to even consider making a second kill.

Initially when the thought came to mind, he decided that he was going to try to supress it as much as possible, but he was eventually smacked with the realisation that the urge was getting stronger. It was something that he was really struggling to shake, and it even began to trickle into his dreams, which he decided was rather concerning as a whole. In the end, Chenle decided that it was time to check online and see if that sort of thing was normal to experience.

It was a relief to find that a variety of different people had described the subsequent kills to be a lot easier than the first. War veterans had claimed that their first kill was only simple because they had been trained to do it but it was a lot easier to deal with it mentally when they had completed that first one. Some killers had reported having spent more time planning their kills than necessary before taking a life, and interviews with serial killers in particular had suggested that as time went on, they didn't have to worry about their nerves when causing other people distress.

Although they didn't directly address whether it was normal to want to kill again, he was happy to find that it got easier the second time around. If anything, it gave him the confidence to accept his sudden change of heart, and so he ended up checking in on Jisung a lot more, just so that he would be able to see the blood again and confirm whether he wanted to lead that sort of lifestyle or not. With time, it was getting even better to the point where he found that he wasn't even having a physiological reaction to seeing blood anymore; his heart rate didn't rise anymore, he didn't feel lightheaded, and he could comfortably brush off the sight of it without even batting an eyelid.

That was when he decided that it was best to cave in and accept his urges.

He made sure to butter Jisung up that day so that he was in the mood to discuss his work after he came home for the night. Chenle had sent him off with a Japanese-style bento box for lunch, which he'd taught himself how to make using online tutorials, then had a light meal of kimbap and mandu prepared for when he got home. He knew full well that Jisung only liked lighter meals when he was in the stalking period, since he was always worried that he would end up being caught out by the victim later on down the line, so his boyfriend was thrilled to find the dishes waiting for him when he got home.

Chenle had decided to put it off for just a bit longer by showering first, and then giving Jisung the best back massage he could manage when they finally made it to their bedroom for the night. He could tell that his boyfriend was appreciating it a lot, since his muscles began to unwind underneath Chenle's touch, and it was only at that point that he even considered bringing it up.

"Hey, Jisung, uh, there was something I thought about a lot today. I was wondering if, uh, could I maybe...?" He started to fiddle with the cuff of his night shirt in an attempt to avoid eye contact with his boyfriend. There was a long pause as he tried to find the words that he wanted to say and Jisung simply waited patiently for his response, but eventually the younger boy pressed a hand to his arm as he gave a concerned look.  
"Could you maybe what?" he asked calmly, making sure to put on the most encouraging expression that he could muster in hopes of giving Chenle the confidence to continue with what he was going to say.

It still took him a few minutes to build himself up, though. He guessed that it would come as a bit of a surprise and so he might be questioned about it, but he didn't know whether that would be a good thing or not. After all, Jisung might have gone through a similar thing when he first started killing, so it might be something that they could talk about and work out together. As much as he knew that his boyfriend was there for him, it was still a bit scary to actually bring it up, just in case there was a reason for him to be rejected in the end. The silence was a bit awkward but he could tell that Jisung was willing to wait until he was ready to say what he needed to say, and it definitely helped him to finally get it out.

"I'd... I'd like to help you with your next kill, if you'd let me."

Just as he'd expected, Jisung looked surprised. He blinked a few times and his jaw dropped open slightly as if he was going to talk, but eventually his mouth just closed without a single word as his lips twitched into a smile.   
"If that's okay," Chenle added quietly, hoping to get a response out of his boyfriend finally, and he watched as Jisung took his hands between his own and his smile began to grow again.  
"Oh, right, uh... well, if you're sure about that, how would you like to help out? Helping me to get the bodies in? Actually doing the kill? Maybe something else?"

Honestly Chenle wasn't to sure what he wanted to do. He hadn't really expected that he would get a choice, but at the same time he didn't expect it to be like a 'bring your boyfriend to work' day, either. There was only so much that he could do without getting in the way, although he did trust that Jisung would know what he could and couldn't join in with. He probably went through something similar, he figured, since he'd learnt rather young and was rather good at it already, despite the occasional slip up that occurred.

In fact, he was rather intrigued by the idea of helping with the things that he'd never seen directly before. Of course he'd seen it all from the perspective as a potential victim, but at the same time he'd never really found out exactly how Jisung managed to get adults to come home with him. After all, it was a lot easier to bring a naive child home, but a grown adult wasn't necessarily going to come home with him quite as easily. On top of that, he knew absolutely nothing about the research process that took place before Jisung even tried to lure the victim home. It seemed like something that he could realistically do, but at the same time he wasn't too sure whether it was confidential or even his sort of thing, seeing as it didn't directly involve seeing the bodies.

"What sort of things do you have outside of the main killing? I want to be able to help you with everything in the future," Chenle finally told him with a strange confidence that he'd never expected from himself, and it seemingly surprised Jisung even more in the process, although his expression was showing an interest more than a desire to prevent his boyfriend from joining him.

"Well, there's picking a target from the files I'm given to work on, further research, learning their daily habits, coming up with a way to lure them, then finally bringing them back and killing them. Plus the actual write up afterwards. I've never actually gone through that bit with you, but I have to do a write up for what I've done and what I've found. It's protocol, just in case it's needed in the future."

Chenle hadn't really expected that there would be that much to the job, seeing as it just seemed to include killing the occasional person. He'd assumed that the process of picking a victim would be random, too, though his boyfriend promptly informed him that he often chose a mix of different people so that he wouldn't be caught out by local authorities. Different ages, genders, backgrounds, work places, relationship statuses, and crimes. It was whatever he could do to make it obvious that he didn't have a particular preference over the people who he'd killed. They were just part of a paycheck for him, and absolutely nothing more.

He'd seen how Chenle seemed to be particularly interested in that part of the job and suggested that they could start there and gradually work through all of the different parts of the job. That way, he would be able to effectively help out further in the future, or even help him to double up on the kills so that they would have more time to themselves over the month instead of constantly working. Of course, Chenle was incredibly excited to give it a try, and so they ended up deciding on a date to start the training, with Chenle getting to join in with one or two aspects of each kill over the month in order to avoid overloading him with too many things at once and potentially causing a slip up as a result.

That was that.

Chenle was incredibly excited over the fact that he would be allowed to be a part of it all, especially since Jisung was actively encouraging him with all of it. He was left buzzing over it every day from that point onwards, always making sure to chat with Jisung about his work when it was appropriate to do so and his boyfriend wasn't too stressed. He had actively tried to keep up with every update that he was given on the job where possible, and was genuinely looking forward to trying it all out for himself each time something new came up. By the time it started getting close to the time at which he was due to start giving the job a shot, he had found out the demographics for the last twenty kills that Jisung had completed, just so that he would be able to give that bit of variety when picking out his first victim, and he'd even come up with a profile for the perfect victim.

It was great, as far as he was concerned. The wait for that month's potential victims near enough killed him, and he'd been absolutely buzzing right up until the point where Jisung brought the file home and placed it down on the kitchen table. He instructed Chenle that he had a day to figure out who he wanted to kill, and if he was to take longer than that, Jisung himself would have to pick someone out. He guessed that it wouldn't be an issue, though, seeing as there were no particular guidelines for how to choose a victim and honestly most hitmen that he knew about had their own personal methods for picking someone out from the bunch.

Chenle excitedly began to look through each of the files on the desk in front of him. He spread them out like a fan and made sure to read all of the information on the sheets so that he would be able to make up his mind. None of them fit his perfect victim, so he was forced to scrap that idea and make a decision based on other aspects, such at their crime and other demographics, but from what he could see, the person who was paying Jisung to complete the kills was really relying on Jisung himself to come up with a lot of the information.

All that was given for most of the victims was a passport-style photograph, plus their name, date of birth, crime, and their car's registration plate. Here and there, there were a few extra details, such as their marital status or job title, but in general there was very limited information to work with. It was a bit of a bother, but he continued to read through them until finally his eyes rested on the profile of someone with a very familiar face.

He took a few minutes aside to figure out who it was, since he knew that it would bug him if he didn't work it out. Their name wasn't one that he recognised all too well, so he guessed that either he'd never known their name or he was given a different name when he knew them. It was irritating to say the least, and so he ended up reading the name out several times in hopes that it would finally tick something in his mind and help him to realise who that person was.

Eventually it did work, although admittedly it wasn't a relief as he'd been expecting. It was his first junior school teacher, and she was found guilty of domestic abuse towards her husband and three children.

Whilst Chenle had decided beforehand that he didn't want to get involved with the deaths of anyone he knew, suddenly this seemed like the perfect opportunity to kick start his career. Abuse was something that annoyed both him and Jisung, so he figured that it would be a nice place to start out and show that he could definitely do this job, even if it meant taking up very personal kills.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to be completely honest here, I stress wrote this entire chapter.
> 
> It's probably not the best, as a result, and it's probably going to have some faults here and there, but my word counting tool isn't working and the one I tried to replace it with it lagging so badly that we're having to use WordPad to do proofing. It's rubbish and I'm annoyed but I couldn't wait any longer to update. I'm really starting to get into this fic a lot and I love my little killer babies.
> 
> It's just about starting to kick off, too; I think we're going to end up having a plot twist in maybe two or three chapters, depending on how long it takes to write the training, and I'm maybe 60% of you won't expect it, but then again I'm not sure whether you're all super sleuths or something.
> 
> Anyhoo, if there are any mess ups as a result of tired mind and stress writing, please let me know and I'll fix it in the morning when everything is all great again.
> 
> Thank you for reading!! <3


	7. Money Stalks

Chenle had expected, from the amount of information that Jisung always found out about his victims, that it would take hours to conduct the research. As a result, he'd been pleasantly surprised to find that most of it was readily available after just a few minutes.

Jisung had taken him through to his private den at the back of the house and sat at the desk with him, where he opened a number of tabs ready. Some were search engine ones, others social media, and then finally there were a few databases to work with. He informed Chenle that they'd need to use everything they knew about her in order to make it as quick and pain-free as possible, so any information he knew would be great help.

That stumped the older boy a bit. Thinking back, he didn't actually know all that much about his old teacher. He was particularly good with remembering very specific personal information about people years after he'd met them, such as their favourite days of the week or the names of all places they'd lived in their lives, but the more he thought about it, the more he came to realise that he'd only ever found out the bare minimum about her. He recalled that if someone in his class asked her a question, she would find a way to avoid answering with anything too personal; it was something that kids would overlook but adults would probably be more suspicious of. For a teacher, she was incredibly secretive, and so the only thing he had to work with was the number of people in her family and the fact that she had moved to Seoul from Chengdu.

It was a bit awkward to confess that, but Jisung insisted that they could work from there. After all, they knew her full name and job, so they could probably figure out a lot from the few details that they already had.

The magic started there. He immediately plugged all of the information they knew about her into the search engine, and instantly found out a massive amount of information about her. Obviously some of the information was about people with the same name as her, but they managed to narrow it down relatively easily. She had five social media accounts with varying degrees of privacy on each, with her Instagram in particular being very open for finding out a lot about her and her family. Her LinkedIn profile showed which universities she'd attended, along with the fact that she studied primary education and mathematics, then took additional language courses. She was fluent in Mandarin, Cantonese and Korean, with some language experience in English and Japanese, and she'd occasionally take short courses over the summer in order to add to her resume.

In fact, some of the details on her profiles were incredibly specific. They'd even found out what grade she'd received in both her undergraduate and post-graduate degrees, plus the fact that she received a grade four in her level five Korean proficiency exam. They knew where her children were born and where their births had been registered, plus which animal shelter her family had adopted their dogs from. Further checks on the search engine found articles in local newspapers from when she was younger; there were some discussing her skills in martial arts as a child, others where she was involved in huge school projects back in the late nineties, and even photos from her high school graduation.

Chenle was absolutely amazed by the sheer breadth of information that they found out from a quick search. It was rather uncomfortable to know that that sort of thing was readily available to any member of the public who knew the right information already, especially since she was a teacher and had to keep a lot of things private online. It wasn't something that he particularly liked and he made a mental note to search up his own name in the future in order to see what sort of things people could learn about him from something as simple as a quick search.

From that point, they moved onto the investigator database. Jisung admitted that he wasn't exactly licensed to use it, but he had connections who had managed to get him onto the system regardless in order to conduct his research. It contained information that was restricted for the public for the moment, and he pointed out that in particular they were looking for information on her criminal convictions, but he was willing to dig a bit deeper if they did manage to find any other interesting information on the way there.

It took a while longer to find her information on the database in comparison to on social media. It wasn't as easy as a lazily recycled username or a profile picture that showed her face; this was a relatively old system that showed just the text information until the name was clicked on. There were thousands of people with the same or similar names to herself and so it had taken a little while to go through all of the filters until it had cut it down to just her file. Yet, it was still surprisingly fast work, seeing as there were just a handful of people in her birth city who had her name, then her date of birth cut it down further. Chenle was absolutely amazed at how easily Jisung had managed to get her records up once he'd found the right filters and selected the right boxes, and he was even more impressed when the file that came up had her photo and all of the information that they'd found on the page too.

Jisung began to skim through the information to make sure that everything they already knew was correct, before scrolling down to the criminal convictions section.

It felt rather dirty to be looking through his old teacher's criminal record, he decided, but it was something that was necessary even if it was arguably taboo. The first that came up on the list was when she was around fifteen, where she committed a rather large theft in a supermarket and got caught by the police. She didn't seem like the sort who would do that sort of thing, or so Chenle thought, but apparently she had tried to smuggle out several bottles of rather expensive alcohol. It was something that she was supposed to have been convicted for, and whilst it was on the record for them to see, the extra information about that conviction showed that it had been wiped.

Jisung quickly explained that it would probably be the result of some connections in the business trying to save her from ruining her life and limiting her potential jobs in the future. There was likely to be a pay off so that her future employers wouldn't find out unless they hired a private investigator to gather that sort of information for them, since teachers needed to have clean records and especially so when it came to working with younger children. Since there were no other convictions until after she was hired, the schools probably didn't feel a need to hire an investigator, so she managed to get off the hook.

On top of that conviction, she did have a few minor driving offenses, too. Nothing too big for that one, though; one or two counts of speeding and one incident where she had her license taken away for refusing a breathaliser on the roadside. Whilst it didn't seem like much of a big deal, Chenle glanced over to his boyfriend to see that Jisung certainly wasn't impressed by the fact that she had probably been drinking and driving, although when questioned about it he refused to dip into the details. Chenle simply accepted that it was probably going to be one of those things that was going to remain a secret for the moment until Jisung was finally ready to talk about it.

There were a few other bits of information they gathered whilst they were there, and by the time they'd finished, Jisung had a lot of information to print out for their personal files. He promised that he would print another out for Chenle, too, provided that he made sure to look after it and wouldn't lose it in public, then suggested that perhaps he would like to be able to go out together and maybe continue with the research in the field. They could always leave it until the following day, if he wanted, but Jisung usually liked to get most of the research done within a day or two so that he could figure out his game plan rather quickly and get the kill over and done with.

As much as it was rather tiring to take in that much information, Chenle figured that it was better to get the research out of the way as quickly as possible. That way, they wouldn't have to worry about it so much at a later date. Honestly he was rather interested by the thought of stalking her around from a safe distance and finding out new things in that sort of way, but he didn't know whether it was just the idea of following someone without their knowledge as opposed to actually doing it. It wasn't exactly something that he'd ever tried before, so it was going to be a bit of a learning experience, but he was rather glad to be doing it with Jisung as opposed to doing it alone, since he figured that it they were caught out they could always pretend to be on a date or something. It was a bit of a perk, even if it was a bit risky going in a pair, but Jisung seemed as if he knew what he was doing well enough to be able to fix it if something did go wrong, and so they ended up getting dressed into something that appeared rather casual before stuffing the files and some notebooks into a bag and finally leaving the house.

To start with, there was quite a lot of waiting around. Neither boy knew what time she was due to leave work exactly, since it was just the first day and they hadn't come to find out about her personal habits just yet, but they made sure to grab a coffee and wait just out of view for her to get off the school grounds. Luckily she didn't drive anymore, since license still wasn't back with her, so they didn't have to worry about having to either try to chase her down on foot or hail a taxi before she left their sight. It was rather relaxing as a result and the boys simply sat around together as time passed.

It had started with the students leaving the school, and then the support staff packing up and going home shortly after. Jisung let out a soft sigh as he tried to make quiet chit chat with Chenle about the fact that he'd had to wait for several hours once, since he hadn't been bagging on the fact that his victim was having an affair with his secretary and they had stayed behind that evening, but he guessed that in a school with mostly female teachers, it wasn't likely to be happening here. The conversation quickly turned to other things that Jisung had accidentally found out during the stalking period, and Chenle was frankly amazed to hear some of the stories.

Eventually their victim came out through the doors of the school and began to walk down the street. They were rather lucky again, since her eyes were glued to her mobile phone as she walked and as a result she hadn't really seen them walking on the opposite side of the road just a few strides behind her. She continued in that manner for most of the journey home, not even spotting them once in the process. In fact, the only time where her gaze lifted was when she entered a shop to buy herself some snacks and a carton of milk, but as soon as she was outside again, her eyes were back down. She wasn't even looking as she was eating and almost ended up bumping into a few people, but seemingly she didn't care in the slightest and just continued on her journey as if she was the only one in the city.

Her house was around a fifteen minute walk away from the school, which Jisung decided was rather convenient to work with. He put a pinpoint on his map ready to record the location for a later date, then sat for a while to see how long it took her family to get home. The children ended up taking an extra ten minutes to return back from their middle and high schools, and finally her husband returned after around forty more minutes. Jisung made sure to write down his car's registration plate on a scrap bit of paper, for just in case they needed it, before stuffing it back into his pocket and turning back to Chenle with a smile.

That was the end of the stalking for the moment, seeing as they had the information that they needed and there was very little more that they could find out about the family for now. The next step was going to be confirming the usual schedule of the victim on the way to her job, too, and then seeing if the time she left on the evening was around the same time every night. It wasn't going to be as fun from that point on, but at the same time it had to be done and it was supposed to be giving them some ideas as to how to lure her into a secluded area.

Apparently Jisung had some ideas as to how they could kill her, but he was considering leaving the method down to Chenle this time. Of course, Chenle wasn't actually going to help with that bit just yet, but it was good to be able to have a plan for the next victim too, at which point he would have a bit more of a free rein when it came to making those sorts of decisions. Once the research was done on this victim, he would be finished with the preparation part of the training, and once they'd gone through all of the other aspects of the job, he would have the chance to give it a try on his own. Jisung promised that he would be getting as much help as he needed until he could confidently take lives without batting an eyelid, and he was going to make sure that Chenle was definitely safe when doing his job before allowing him to have complete freedom.

Chenle was rather satisfied with that, and decided that it was a good start at least. Although Jisung had done most of the work this time, he suddenly felt as if he'd achieved a lot, and if he needed to track a person down in the future he could definitely find a way to get any bit of information on them with some online searches. 

Suddenly he knew why Jisung was doing that sort of job; it gave a sense of power already, as if he was a god who was deciding the fate of people who didn't necessarily deserve good things in life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm wondering already if anyone's caught onto the mistake with this just yet, but I'm not going to go into it for another few chapters. There's a huge huge fault that's in the process of happening and some of you guys will probably catch on pretty quickly, but it's something that the babies might not consider all that much.
> 
> Sorry about this, I'm doing a bad.
> 
> Anyhoo, hope you're enjoying the read and thank you for staying with me <3


	8. Dying to See You

The first kill would always be the most exciting for Chenle.

He had a young woman to abduct; someone who was generally sweet but a compulsive gambler who had left her family without a home after getting in a massive amount of debt. Her husband had left her to make a better life for himself, but despite the fact that he had his own house and job, she somehow managed to get full custody of their child. The child was sent to be looked after by random members of their mother's family whenever she didn't feel like looking after them, but the father was unable to prove anything when his ex wife's relatives would pretend that she was the best mother alive.

She was someone who interested him a lot. From what he could tell, the woman seemed to be really generous and sweet. She gave money and her lunch to a homeless man on her way to work, and helped a teenager to carry heavy shopping to her parents' car. She was consistently helpful towards her colleagues, and hadn't had so much as a parking fine. It was strange to see her acting so sweet towards other people, even without knowing that she was being followed, but it just went to show that sometimes it was hard to be able to pick those sorts of people out from the crowd.

Chenle was lucky, to an extent, since her general mannerisms left her as the perfect target for a more dramatic abduction. After finding out that Jisung often abducted people in a similar manner each time, he decided that he wanted to make his first abduction as memorable as possible. He intended to do his very best at acting and would even find a way to make himself cry in front of her so that she felt sorry for him. Even the kill itself would be theatrical, he decided, and she was absolutely going to regret putting her family in their current position.

He made sure to plan his outfit perfectly in order to portray the character that he'd decided on. It meant wearing shorts that came just above his knees, along with a graphic t-shirt that made him look around twelve. He even picked out some of Jisung's old light up shoes, since the younger boy had already outgrown them but Chenle was still rather small. When the outfit was complete, he gave it a quick check in the mirror before informing Jisung that he was ready to get started on the kill.

They had started out by walking towards her workplace. She was the owner of a small beauty parlour; it made enough money for her to not have to be there all of the time, but also small enough for them to be able to close up early on Tuesdays and Thursdays. On this particular day, she was the one to close the shop up, so Chenle made sure to wait for all of the staff to be well out of the way before he made his move. He peeked around the corner of the street once more before making his move.

He ran over to the woman and stopped right in front of her with tears starting to brim in his eyes. She didn't notice him to start with, but eventually looked up when he spoke. "I'm sorry to bother you, Miss, but did you see a small white Bichon dog run down this street?" Her eyes snapped up from the door handle, and she seemed confused for a moment but soon calmed when she realised that a child was talking to her. She offered up an apologetic smile as she shook her head.  
"I'm sorry, I didn't see any dog come past here."

Chenle let out a long breath as he immediately switched his mind to his worst experience, just so that the tears would start to roll down his cheeks. He pretended that he wasn't crying by rubbing his eyes with his shirt sleeves before muttering a comment about how his mother would kill him for what he'd done. That got her attention, and she immediately looked concerned as she asked what he meant by that, and so Chenle allowed himself to burst into tears in front of her as he began to explain that he'd lost the family dog and everyone would hate him for it. His parents and older brother loved the dog a lot, so it was like losing his baby niece or nephew in a park or something.

The woman's face turned soft as she began to wipe his eyes with a tissue and asked if he needed a hug. Chenle gave a nod, allowing her to pull him close to her chest as she stroked his hair. She was quick to ask what his name was and how old he was, before asking if he had a photo of the dog so that they could show it to local authorities. Admittedly, Chenle hadn't thought about bringing a mobile phone along with photos of a dog on it, since he had tossed his own one out in case his parents got someone to track his phone number, but then again, it was something that he could quite easily improvise in order to make his story sound even more dramatic.

"My mum doesn't like mobile phones. She thinks that they kill your brain cells," he explained, then widened his eyes as he clapped a hand over his mouth. "I-I can't even call to tell her that I lost Xun. I'll have to wait until she gets back home from work in an hour, and someone could have stolen him by that point."

The tears started again. Chenle was relieved that they were flowing so easily; he'd allowed his emotions to build for a week in hopes that it would help him to cry like that, but it worked even better than he'd expected. The woman genuinely seemed to believe his story and was quick to start comforting him again as she asked whether he wanted help with looking for the dog. He gave a little nod, trying harder than anything to avoid making it obvious that his plan was working out perfectly before starting to search with her.

Over the next hour, they searched all over that side of town. The dog only had short legs, or so he said, so it was unlikely to run too far away. They ended up asking a lot of people on the streets as well as going to the sorts of places that would make sense for a dog to go to; parks, pet stores, crowded areas, and then eventually towards Chenle and Jisung's house.

Chenle made sure to point out when they were almost back at his house. The woman asked whether he was okay to go in on his own or whether he wanted her to explain to his mother that he was scared to tell her about losing the dog, and so the teenager gave a little nod of agreement to the latter option. He was scared to tell her, he said, and the last thing he wanted was to see her get angry at him over the fact that he let the lead slip from his fingers. At least if another adult tried to speak to her about that sort of thing, she would be less likely to scold him too badly over that sort of thing.

That was where Jisung came in. He had run ahead to the house after following Chenle and the woman for a while, and waited for them to get to the door. Upon opening it, Chenle called in to ask his mother to come through to the door, and his boyfriend simply played a pre-recorded clip of a woman's voice saying that she couldn't go to the door at that point in time. "It's urgent. We have someone who needs to talk to you about something," he called back, making sure to put on a whiny childish voice.  
"Well, you're going to have to invite them in because I'm in the bath right now and I can't get out whilst my oil treatment is developing."

He turned to the woman and began to chew on his lower lip as he pretended to think over the possible options as to how to proceed. "You can leave, if you want. I don't want to make you stay here with me whilst we wait for her to come through here. I'm sure she won't yell at me too badly." Despite what he said, he was relieved to see the woman shake her head and offer up a sweet smile.  
"No, I promised that I would talk to her for you, and I'm not going to back out of the promise when you're still clearly upset about what happened. Now, maybe we can get some drinks and sit down together to figure out our story before she comes down to talk with us."

Of course, Chenle agreed to do so. He led her to the kitchen, then prepared water for the woman and chocolate milk for himself, but made sure to snatch up the needle and syringe from the same draw as the straws on the way back over to her. He had decided that a quick slide of hand was probably not going to work for him, since he had never even practiced it before, so instead he simply waited for her to turn her back to him for a moment before snatching up the chance to ram the needle straight into the flesh between her neck and shoulder.

The anaesthetic of choice was very fast acting, so she barely had time to panic and turn around before she was starting to grow dizzy. It was clear that she was getting more and more worked up as she realised what he'd done to her, which only made the drug reach her brain and heart quicker, and after around a minute she fell to the floor. Chenle made sure to follow what Jisung had told him and straddled her so that she was pinned on the floor before administering the second injection. This one was slower to work, but since the first one was supposed to wear off really quickly without consistent administration, he needed the help of an additional anaesthetic to get her to stay unconscious whilst they worked.

He waited on top of her for a few minutes, making sure to time it on his watch to make sure that she was definitely under the second shot of anaesthetic before calling for Jisung. The younger boy came trotting into the kitchen with a proud smile plastered on his face, then congratulated his boyfriend with an affectionate little kiss before helping him to move the body through to their killing room. She was tied up within a minute, and then Jisung began to go through the blades with Chenle.

The blunt ones were usually reserved for people who committed horrible crimes against innocent people, such as rape, murder or child abuse, since they tended to tear rather than puncture. The knives with ribs were good for ripping as well, although frankly Jisung rarely used the blunt ribbed knives. Sharp knives were good for quicker deaths that involved slashing arteries, or for just jamming into their body as a torture method. Of course, it was completely up to Chenle to choose which knife he wanted to choose, but obviously Jisung know which one he would use in that situation and would be willing to offer advice if it was needed.

**As cruel as it was for the woman to have treated her family how she did, they mutually agreed that her actions weren't really bad enough to result in a violent death whilst she was conscious. Chenle instead decided that he wanted to make this one a lot quicker, such as an arterial or venous bleed, but he did want to practice using the different knives on her corpse when he was absolutely certain that she was dead. After all, he didn't want to cause pain for her unnecessarily, even if she was still going to be unconscious at the time of death.**

**Jisung made sure to show him exactly which artery to cut for a quick death, so he made sure to follow the instructions exactly. Chenle was especially proud of himself when Jisung praised him for his work, and they began to check her pulse and breathing when the spurts of blood began to slow finally. "She's dead now," Jisung announced after a while as he pressed a few affectionate pecks to Chenle's cheek and ear, "You did really well to not panic over it. Now you can test the knives out."**

**The testing period lasted for a good forty five minutes. Chenle made sure to use each blade on each part of her body until he had absolutely exhausted them. He found that sometimes the blades would slip in easily, but other times there was quite a lot of resistance, so he was forced to ram it into the corpse instead. He quickly decided that his favourite place to stab was the stomach, since the tissue was rather soft and he knew that he was hitting organs at some point. It was rather fun to imagine the effects of stabbing in the lower stomach, too; Jisung had reminded him on a handful of occasions that a perfectly aimed stab to the stomach could cause painful internal damage on top of the pain from the stab wound itself.**

Finally when he was absolutely finished, Jisung helped him to dispose of the body and clean up the blood. It was amazing to see how quickly they could clean it up together, and how little evidence remained in the room afterwards. In fact, Chenle was certain that the only sign that they'd completed another kill was the distinctive metallic scent in the room. That was easily covered up with the smell of air freshener and bleach, and within minutes it felt as if the room was completely fresh once again.

"So," Jisung started when they finally went to wash themselves up following the kill, "Would you like to do the paperwork on this one with me? Or would you like to watch me do the next kill and help me with the write up process of that?"  
"This one," Chenle decided without needing to take the time to think about it. He figured that it would be easier to do that part for this kill too, seeing as it required him to know what happened. That way, Jisung wouldn't have to fill him in on how everything went down, and he could even help out with those sorts of details if Jisung didn't see particular parts of the killing process. It was just going to be simpler that way.

That was that. Jisung promised that they would start in the morning, but seeing as it was Chenle's first proper paid kill, they were going to do some aftercare today with take out food, a warm shower and a lot of cuddling. It was a way of making sure that his mind associated completed killings with good things, and it was going to ultimately help Chenle join in with that part of Jisung's life on a more permanent basis, if that was what he wanted to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the training is almost complete!! Chenle is starting to get more into it and is enjoying the idea of kills a bit more now, but of course it's not going to be all rainbows and unicorns for all that long~ Sorry in advance!!
> 
> Thank you for reading!! <3


	9. Cut-Throat

The write up had taken quite a while, but they still managed to get it finished in less than a day. Chenle was absolutely relieved when it was out of the way; as much as it was just regurgitating what he'd already done in the past, it was still really draining to go through everything in that much detail again. He was forced to remember exactly what he'd said to her and how he'd managed to lure her, along with his reasons for absolutely everything. For the most part, he'd been incredibly dramatic and just added things on the spot, so he didn't know what to write most of the time and Jisung had to find ways to jog his memory so that it was as accurate as possible.

They ended up spending the rest of the day making snacks and eating them as they lounged on the sofa together and tried to come up with ways to make their evening as relaxed as possible. Jisung even admitted that after his first few kills he was overwhelmed by the paperwork and had to get his parents to write it up for him, which had sparked a discussion about that sort of thing. Chenle had been amazed when he heard Jisung finally mention his parents, since he had never brought them up in conversation before, but Jisung seemed a bit awkward to start with when he realised that he'd finally confessed to them helping him with his murders.

"It's not what you think though," he told Chenle, "I bet you wouldn't believe me if I told you everything. I never wanted to tell you that sort of thing, but you know... we've been boyfriends for quite a while and we even share the same bed and have showers together and you've seen all of me and I've seen all of you, and I think maybe we'll be together for a long time." It was clear that he was just adding everything that he thought of at the time in hopes of justifying it in his own mind, and Chenle completely understood his sudden fear. He reached his fingertips out to brush the back of his boyfriend's hand in hopes that it would comfort him, before flashing a loving smile.  
"You can tell me as much or as little as you want."

Jisung took a deep breath and let it all flow out. He started by explaining that he was technically kidnapped when he was a child by two hitmen who were working on commission. He was scared to start with, but they were kind to him and always made sure that he was happy and healthy, and one of them even took the time to homeschool him whilst he lived with them. He lived with the two men for a year or so, feeling a lot happier with them than he had when he was living his old life, since they always treated him as if he was the most important person in their world. Eventually, he was given the opportunity to leave as long as he didn't tell anyone about them, which he guessed was the reason why they took him in the first place. If he knew them personally and they were close, he wouldn't say a bad word against them and they wouldn't be caught.

Of course, he was upset about that. He assumed that they didn't want him to live with them anymore, and thought that they had just taken him in and looked after him because they didn't want him to report them. He packed up everything that he could realistically take home with him and made his way back to his birth parents' house, where he was greeted with smothering affection and a police report to fill out. As much as he was angry at the men who had taken him, though, he couldn't bring himself to report them for the murders and for taking him in. He didn't know what it was, but there was something about them that he still loved a lot about them. Perhaps it was the way that he was allowed to affectionately refer to them as Soo and Min instead of Sooji and Minwoo, or the way that they didn't get angry with him when his growth spurt meant that they had to buy him a lot of new clothes over the space of a fortnight.

Yet, the police made it known to him that he'd been spotted going into various shops with two much older men on the day that he went missing. He was forced to explain his story with some lies about how the two men had found him after he wet himself on his walk home from school and they had taken him to get cleaned up but they'd sent him home after that and after they began to drive away, someone grabbed him from behind and drugged him with a chloroform-soaked rag. He never saw the person who took him, and he managed to escape because the window in his room was left open a crack.

Jisung had figured out after just a few weeks that he didn't actually like being back with his parents. It had taken quite a long time, considering that he wasn't getting anywhere near as much attention from his parents, but the main problem that had come up was the fact that his parents had him on house arrest as soon as he'd returned to them. They had been insistent that he would get a personal tutor and would be home schooled so that he would never have to leave the house again, and they had hired someone in just a matter of days in order to prove their point. It wasn't something that Jisung particularly enjoyed but at the same time he put up with it because it meant that he was making them happy.

It eventually got to be too much, though. His parents were gradually getting to be more and more protective as time went on. On top of not being allowed to leave the house, he wasn't allowed to answer the door, he had to have bars over his bedroom window in order to prevent someone from getting in and kidnapping him, he had to be in his bedroom at seven o'clock and asleep by nine, and they'd even changed all of the locks on the house so that he was essentially trapped.

Jisung loathed it. He tried to sneak out a few times, but each time he would get caught before he'd even made it to the main room. It went on for weeks until eventually he decided to try to break out through his parents' bedroom window, but it had only resulted in him being locked in his bedroom on a semi-permanent basis, spare for meals, lessons and bathroom breaks. His mother eventually started to stay at home to monitor him and even started to teach him herself, so that he would rarely ever be out of her sight. That was why he had to take drastic measures in the end.

He went to make himself a drink in the kitchen during one of his lessons and had grabbed a knife from the drawer as well as a straw. As he went back to the dining room table where she was sat, he clapped a hand over her mouth to stop her from screaming as he cut where he'd seen Soo and Min cutting on their victims in the past. Of course, he couldn't just leave it there, so he waited for his father to come back from work before taking his life too, then dyed his hair with some hair bleach that his mother kept in the bathroom before switching his clothes, putting on a cap, and walking back towards his adoptive parents' house.

They had been surprised to see him when he turned up, but he explained what he'd done and why he'd done it, so they simply took him into their house and raised him as their own child from that point onwards. Of course, he had to stay inside when local authorities found out about his parents' death, and they were under the assumption that Jisung's corpse was going to turn up at some pouint over the next few days, but he felt a lot more free when he was with people who genuinely cared about his well-being and made that known, in comparison to people who were clearly more bothered by how they would come across as parents if they were to lose him again.

Jisung lived with them until he was thireen. They taught him absolutely everything he needed to know about being a hitman, since he had showed an interest in it, and they had made sure that he was well-trained at that point. Of course, though, there was a point in time where they were due to get caught by the police, since as much as they could try to hide, they had been seen with Jisung on more than one occasion, and so it was just a waiting game until that point. They gave Jisung the keys to one of their homes, gave him a number to call in order to get jobs and money, then gave themselves in so that he wouldn't be questioned over what happened to his parents, and from that point, he was essentially left to fend for himself. In order to protect him, they confessed to murdering him and his parents, and Jisung was able to get on with his life without raising suspicion.

By the time they got to the end of the story, Chenle didn't know what to do. He hadn't expected that the talk of parents would have been referring to the men who took him in, rather than his actual birth parents. He hadn't even expected that Jisung would have been involved with the whole murdering process at such a young age. His first murder had taken place when he was just ten years old, and that one hadn't even been prompted by money.

For a moment, Chenle was worried. He knew that Jisung couldn't bring himself to hurt him, but at the same time, he also knew what his boyfriend was capable of. He'd seen what he could do, and how skilled he was with a knife, even if he did occasionally slip up, and if he was being completely honest, it was really scary information. The reality of the situation was that it was possible for his boyfriend to be able to kill him and have all evidence of him destroyed, yet he kept him alive for some reason. Be it for company, for genuine love, or something else; Jisung saw enough in him to keep him alive for now.

He brought that up with an awkward laugh as Jisung tried to distract himself from his own story by flicking through the channels on the television. "Why would I kill you when I love you this much?" he asked, as if the words that left his lips didn't bother him in the slightest. Chenle, on the other hand, felt his chest tighten in response to the casual use of the word 'love', but decided not to bring it up in fear of coming across too strong.  
"But you loved your parents, didn't you?"  
"Until I realised that they just wanted me back for the Best Parent Award and not because they actually missed me. They were sweet and loving to me for all of five minutes before I was lonely again. You're different because you love me back, and as long as you love me back, I won't even look at you in a bad way."

That time, Chenle couldn't hide the overwhelming bubbly feeling in his stomach. They kissed, gently and lovingly. It was anticipated, considering the topic of conversation that had resulted in such a sweet gesture, but both boys melted against each other as if it was a spontaneous decision. Chenle adjusted himself on the sofa so that he was cuddled up against Jisung's chest with the younger boy's legs wrapped around him in an almost protective manner, and so when they parted, he simply pressed his cheek to Jisung's shoulder so that he could watch whatever was on television from the safety of his boyfriend's arms.

Both boys were completely relaxed for the moment, until Jisung's flicking brought him to a news programme, where a photo of Chenle was being shown on screen. "-- spotted in the south east of Seoul. He was seen with twenty eight year old Heo Seon-Ja on security footage, and Ms Heo has since been reported as missing by her family. Zhong Chenle was reported missing by his family last October, and this is the first piece of evidence that has come up with regards to his whereabouts since then. Local authorities ask that if anyone else has any information about Mr Zhong or Ms Heo, they should contact the number on screen as soon as possible."

Jisung cursed under his breath as he jolted to sit. "Chenle, we have to pack up some of our things now," he announced as he shifted Chenle from his lap and began to make his way out of the main room. The elder boy was quick to follow him as he asked what exactly was wrong, and his boyfriend simply stared at him in disbelief. "This safe house is only safe as long as people don't know about it. There's five emergency safe houses that we can move between for the moment until they're off our trail. Just grab a few pairs of clothes and maybe something fun to do whilst we're out, and then we have to go before someone tells the police that we went this way."

Chenle simply did as he was asked, although he didn't fully understand the use of a safe house when he'd already been caught out. Surely there would be more security cameras on the way that would lead the police to find them quicker than if they were to stay put but not leave the house. After all, there was a good week or so before they needed to kill again and they had plenty of food to last them without Jisung having to go out and get groceries. He made sure to pack as light as possible before meeting Jisung in the main room again; the younger boy had grabbed his work laptop too, presumably since it gave valuable and sensitive information to the police if they did come across it.

From that point, they were on the run. Jisung led Chenle out of the house via his study, making sure to lock every door and window on the way there, then slipped through a backstreet route that Chenle had never seen before. They had to be brisk, he said, just in case there were any cameras or people around, and even if they did get caught, they had to pretend to know nothing about any accusations. From then on, they were working against the world, and they were the only ones that they could trust in the world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It was inevitable, really, and this was one of the main plot twists that happened in the original idea, too.
> 
> Letting Chenle take over a kill to that extent when he's freshly missing was probably the worst idea and it's opening up a completely new can of worms, so it's not going to be easy for them for a little while!!
> 
> Thank you for reading!! <3


	10. Blade Runner

When Jisung said that they were going on the run, Chenle didn't quite expect the reality of the situation.

He expected that they would be sneaking around as if they were in an action movie, trying to stay hidden away from local authorities. The police would be good, but they would always be one step ahead. They would be on their way to China before the police even realised that they were out of the country, even though they would have border patrol there to make sure that they didn't leave whilst there was an ongoing hunt for them. It would be stealthy and cool, and they would be able to have a great life together as a couple with no one to stop them.

Of course, that was far from what ended up happening, though.

Instead, they spent a few nights here and there in various warehouses and abandoned buildings across Seoul. It wasn't at all luxurious; they were forced to cuddle together to stay warm, and the windchill from outside often left Chenle unable to sleep. There was limited food, and they had to reduce the amount of times that they left their safe 'houses' to get food. Chenle hated it, but Jisung had promised that it would only last for a short amount of time before they would be safe to go back to a proper house, and at that point he would love on Chenle for all of his troubles. They just needed to wait until the police announced that their leads were dropped. Jisung had a radio that would tell them any updates from both the news and their various sources, so as soon as they were safe to do so, they could make their move back in the direction of genuine safety.

As horrible as it was to be in that sort of situation, Chenle found himself getting somewhat comfortable with their living conditions. It made for time without technology, most of all, which forced them to talk about everything out loud for a form of entertainment. Neither of them particularly minded too much; it helped them to bond a lot more in their relationship and gave them the chance to bring up topics that they hadn't really discussed too much. Chenle spoke of his family, and Jisung spoke of the upbringing he had with his adoptive parents. They spoke of schooling and interests in greater detail than they had before, and Chenle had even suggested that perhaps they could get a pet together in the future when they were old enough to do so. They obviously had to wait for a few years, but he wanted a huge angora bunny who would essentially be their child.

Over the course of the month, they'd come up with an entire life together once they were free from surveillance. They would get a huge house together and live like a normal couple, but would still murder for money in a completely separate house if they needed to. They would have their bunny and would frequently take him out for walks around the neighbourhood, so that everyone would be able to see how cute he was. Eventually Jisung would propose, and they would end up going to America together so that they would be able to get married. Whilst it wouldn't be official in Korea or China to start with, eventually they would be recognised as a married couple there as well. It would take time, but everything in their lives would eventually slow into place, and it would be absolutely perfect.

It was fun to be able to think of those sorts of things and act as if there was a clear and definite future for them both. Of course, it depended entirely on the fact that they weren't going to get caught at any point in the future and both boys would be so unrecognisable as adults that it wouldn't raise any suspicions from missing children files. Whilst Jisung was probably safe now that his adopted parents had falsely confessed to killing him, Chenle's family was still searching for him, so they needed to make them lose hope before they were able to have that typical white picket fence family life that they were both dreaming of. He didn't think it would take too long, in all honesty, but a part of him desperately hoped that puberty would hit him hard enough to make him look a lot different to his child self, so that they would no longer have to worry about that sort of thing.

The main problem was, though, that the police didn't seem to be backing down in the slightest. No, instead they only seemed to be getting close to finding them. They were getting transport companies to do checks so that if anyone was wearing caps or masks, they were made to take them off in order to check their identity. Staff at petrol staff were made to inform the police of anyone who looked suspicious, or if they saw any children of around Chenle's age in the cars that passed by them. Supermarkets were made to look out for him during trips, and nearby towns and cities were watching for any signs of Chenle, too.

As much as he had that fantasy that he was going to be able to escape with Jisung and never return, it was absolutely not going to be possible. The police had already had a number of calls from members of the public who claimed to have seen Chenle. Although it certainly wasn't true, especially when they had been in the safe houses for several days by that point, it was going to show that everyone was looking for him. Chenle had severely underestimated how powerful and influential his parents were, and it was absolutely terrifying for him to find out in that way. No other family would be able to fork out that much money to be able to get their child back, and he was certain that it was just to prove their innocence in the matter, more than anything.

It eventually got to the point, though, were Jisung was having to go around every corner first one their way across town. Areas were being guarded, and sometimes there was no way to pass without being spotted. The authorities were everywhere; if there wasn't a police officer stationed there, there was a security camera that was trying to catch a glimpse of Chenle. They were narrowing down their location, and soon enough they were going to find out where they were staying. At that point, Chenle was going to be taken back to his parents and Jisung would probably end up going to a prison if the police caught on that he was involved. After all, he wasn't supposed to be alive, and no story that they could come up with would work well enough to slot in side by side with all of the information that the police already knew.

"Chenle, I think you know what's coming next," Jisung finally said one night as he cuddled his boyfriend under a blanket, "I'm going to have to go out there and tell them that I killed you. That way, your parents are off your back and you're free to continue doing this. Or not, if you'd prefer not to. You can stay under the safety of the employer for a few months, since they'll be good enough to let you do that, but then you're going to have to move somewhere far away from here and hope that law enforcement hasn't told them about you."

"Don't be so dramatic," Chenle whined as he buried his face in Jisung's neck.  
"I'm not, I'm just looking out for your safety."  
"You _are_ , Jisung. We can do it other ways."

He couldn't think of other ways, but he was sure that they existed. If Jisung could have gotten out of that situation before and managed to live for several years on his own, Chenle could do it, too. After all, he'd been missing for quite a long time by that point, so it wouldn't be a surprise if he did end up dead somewhere. Once he actually thought about it, it seemed like a great idea to do that, actually. He could pretend that he dead and then magically reanimate when the time was right to do so. Before he was buried or cremated, obviously.

He suggested that sort of thing, although it didn't quite work as well as he'd imagined. Jisung simply stared at him, unsure whether to take the proposal seriously or not, and then finally gave a little sigh.  
"We can't fake your death, Chenle, it's not as easy as that."  
"Well, I want to fake my death. Find something to slow my heart rate, stick me in a ditch somewhere, cover me in blood... It would be perfect."

Of course, Jisung still wasn't sure about that sort of idea and tried to change his mind, but Chenle was absolutely adamant on it for a good hour or two until Jisung came up with a different plan.  
"How about you go out there and let the police take you home, and then we'll continue to secretly meet behind your parents' backs and I'll soon get you out of that situation? They'll think you're in school, but instead we'll be on a plane to Hong Kong. Or America. It would be really great and we wouldn't have to worry about anyone watching out for you anymore because you won't be classed as missing anymore. We can even get fake IDs and pretend to be different people."

It was still childishly innocent, but it was a better idea than faking his death for the moment, Chenle figured. At least then, they wouldn't have to try to gather all of the necessary components to make that sort of thing work, whilst still trying to avoid local authorities. It would work out for the best, in the end, and at least that way they would both be able to get their strength up again before their plan was executed. As much as they had tried to keep themselves fit and healthy, it wasn't exactly realistic in their current living conditions, and both boys knew that very well. There was only so long that they could stay there and not end up exhausted and severely malnourished, and that time was quickly approaching them.

So that was the plan. They spent a while coming up with a story together so that Chenle would be able to keep everything consistent, and then Jisung went through some questions with him. It was the typical sort of thing that the police asked, and whilst Chenle had gotten flustered by the questioning to start with, he quickly started to get better at answering everything that Jisung threw at him.

Finally, it got to the point where he could go out into public and put the plan into play. They made sure to grub him up first, rubbing dirt into his hair and on his hands and knees and face. Chenle insisted on Jisung giving him a small gash to his cheek with a metal object, which Jisung had reluctantly done for him using a small disposable blade that he kept in his pocket, and then Chenle had made sure to graze his skin by kneeing and crawling across the concrete floor of the warehouse. By the time he was ready to go, it seemed realistic that he had been captured and had escaped, and he had his dramatic story perfectly prepared.

The execution was the only thing left from that point, and as nervous as Chenle was, he figured that it was absolutely necessary to get on with it. He was certain that his parents wouldn't be nearly as bad as Jisung's were when he made his way back to the house, but he was still somewhat hesitant in case they did try to limit him from the moment he got back to their house. He took a deep breath before stepping out into the open, then waited for Jisung to get a safe distance away from him before he made his way out into the open.

Considering that there were so many police officers and members of the public out at that house, Chenle was surprised at how far he managed to walk before he was caught. In fact, if his orientation was correct, he was a good quarter of the way home by that point. It wasn't nearly as dramatic or cool as he'd expected; a police officer grabbed for his wrist and asked if he was Zhong Chenle, and when he said that he was, they called it in before asking him if they could take him to the police station. As much as it was worded like a question, Chenle was certain that it was more of a demand than anything, and he would be forced to go whether he liked it or not, so he decided to test the waters instead of going straight away.

"I'd like to go home to my family, thank you. I think my mom might be worried about me." He tried to pull his arm away, but the police officer held tighter.  
"You have to come with me. I can't let you go on your own, and the police station has your parents' information so they can come and collect you very shortly. We just don't want the media to see you and cause a scene when your parents haven't even seen you yet."

It was far from a question, then. Back up arrived shortly after, and Chenle was promptly taken through to the station, where he was taken to a room to 'chat'. Unlike a typical interview room, this one had brighter colours and was filled with things to do; books, colouring equipment, and some toys for younger children. He figured that it was their way of showing him that he wasn't in trouble and allowing him to relax before they started to ask him questions. Chenle simply grabbed for a pencil and a sheet of paper before starting to sketch.

He drew the scene that he and Jisung had discussed, forgetting that they were watching him do so. "Who's that?" the officer in the room asked him calmly as she pointed to Jisung, "Is that one of your friends? Maybe someone you met whilst you were missing?"  
"He was just an old friend. Please don't read into it too much; I'm drawing a dream I had last night."

That was where he stopped answering for the moment. He wanted it to be dramatic and capture their interest, and he wanted to make it seem as if he wasn't ready to tell anyone about what happened to him. The officer tried to get that information out of him for around an hour, with Chenle simply responding with basic information, until finally he was called out of the room. He couldn't be held if he hadn't done anything wrong, but they informed him that they needed as much information from him as possible when he started to remember. "I don't know" wasn't going to help them with their investigation, especially when it was his reply to every question.

That was when they introduced him to his parents again.

As much as Chenle had been dreading the moment they met again, he felt a strange rush of relief when they both moved forward to hug him tightly. He hated them for waiting until he was abducted to finally show him some love, but for once, he felt that things were better with them. Even if it meant that he was away from Jisung for a while.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Even if this is basically child murderers, it can't be all sunshine and rainbows - sorry about that
> 
> Thank you for reading <3


	11. Back from the Dead

Chenle had been hoping for a miracle when he finally got back to his parents' house, but alas it had ended up being the exact same as when he'd left.

He slipped straight back into his daily life just as easily as he had when he first started middle school. He would get himself up, get dressed into his school uniform, then make himself something for lunch, and go to school when he was ready. He would come home at the end of the day, make himself something to eat, study for a few hours, and then go to bed at around ten o'clock. That routine came back to him rather easily, considering that he had ended up spending so long away from it, and he was particularly surprised at how easily he managed to fit in at school.

Everyone knew about his situation. It was hardly something that was on the down-low. His parents had made the hunt for their son very public, and it had been the topic of debate for a long time. Were they directly responsible for their son's disappearance? Did they kill him? Did they find him dead in their family home one day and decide to stage it like a kidnap? Obviously all of those theories had been debunked now that Chenle was safe and was claiming that someone had kidnapped him on his way home from school, but still, everyone knew who he was. 

To start with, there was a mix of reactions in response to him being back at school. Some of the other students were wary around him, as if his kidnap had left him feral and he was going to attack at any minute. Some were more sensitive to him, trying to make sure that there weren't any loud sounds when he was around. Others were more open to being his friend when they probably wouldn't have been that close to him otherwise - perhaps it was their attempt at being good friends with a kid who was the focus of a lot of attention at the moment, or perhaps they were under the assumption that he didn't have any friends to make him feel included, but they were suddenly all over him whenever they had the chance.

Chenle felt suffocated when it came to his school life. The people who were there tried to act too much like a community when he was around; teachers would always make sure that he knew exactly what he was doing, just in case the time away from education had left him stupid and unable to understand how to write an essay on Korean history, and they would even make sure to warn him if anything potentially scary was going to come up in the class. Some of the older girls in his school offered to walk him home so that he wouldn't have to worry about strangers trying to hurt him, and some of the teachers had even offered to give him a lift home in their cars so that he didn't have to walk.

It was hard to stop himself from yelling at them and saying that he didn't want to be treated like a baby anymore. Of course, he had spent quite a lot of time away from home and didn't quite start high school at the same time as everyone else, so he did occasionally feel a bit excluded, but it wasn't something that he couldn't handle on his own. He didn't need constant babysitters or people to walk him home to his parents' house or people to monitor his levels of distress. Chenle was absolutely fine, other than his worry about Jisung, and the last thing he needed was for other people to constantly swarm him about things that he had to pretend affected him.

If it wasn't the people at school, though, it was his family members. On the few occasions that his parents were home and wanted to spend time with him, Chenle was faced with more questions about who took him. Was he sure that he didn't see his attacker's face? Did they not try to starve or torture him? Did he stay in the same room the entire time, or was he allowed to roam around? How come he was out of the basement and shown walking through the streets on CCTV cameras? Why did he not try to come home to them if he was free to walk down the street without his attacker glued to his side? In the end, Chenle simply told them that he was tired and didn't want to talk about it anymore, which worked for a short while but wasn't exactly enough to get him off the hook for good. Eventually the topics would come back up and it would absolutely rip him to shreds once again as he tried to remember what lies he'd told them about that situation in the past, just so that he would be able to keep his story straight.

He didn't know how Jisung managed it when he got home. It was a lot harder than he had expected, especially since there was no man and coming up with a description on the spot was particularly difficult. He and Jisung had gone through the description over and over again, but there were some things that Chenle had never really considered before. Did the man have any skin impurities on his face? What shape were his ears? Did he have big feet or a heavy walk? Those were the sorts of things that Chenle never really thought about when he was describing someone, so he wasn't really sure of how to answer the questions, but he ended up having to sit there and think about what he thought the imaginary man would act like, in order to get the best description possible.

After just six weeks of constant questioning and subtle attempts at getting answers out of him, though, Chenle could feel the exhaustion hitting him hard. He struggled to focus on his school work, and all he could think about was his desperate need to be with Jisung. He no longer cared if it meant running away from home or intentionally trying to capture his boyfriend's attention again, but he needed to do something in order to get recognition. Some form of positive human contact was what he needed for now, so he made sure to do whatever he could to become a person of interest again.

He stole small items from stores, knowing that he wasn't necessarily going to be caught by the business owners themselves but Jisung's employers would certainly see everything and would track him down. He would eat food from the grocery store as he was walking around to that it wasn't even there at the end of the shop and he could easily dispose of the packaging without having to purchase the item itself, and he would find ways to hide items on his person in big stores so that when he was getting his bag checked, they would find that he had everything on his receipt and he would be let go. It was just silly things like that that he was sure would gain him the attention he needed, and he just waited for the day that he would end up on Jisung's list once more.

Chenle knew that Jisung would eventually track him down again. It was just a matter of time, but then, of course, he ended up on the list and Jisung was made aware of his new daily routine, and eventually as he was walking through the streets on his way home when he heard a call from the alleyway.

"Zhong Chenle," the voice called out, and Chenle immediately froze on the spot, "I can only assume that you're doing this because you wanted to find me again, and you're really lucky that you ended up on my list and not someone else's because you could've ended up being murdered this time." He felt his heart skip a beat as he slowly turned to face his boyfriend, and as much as he could tell that Jisung was angry with the fact that he so readily risked his life over something so ridiculous, the younger boy's lips twitched into a smile as he held out his arms for him.

For the first time in weeks, Chenle suddenly felt every bit of tension leave his body. He threw himself forward so that he could hug Jisung, and he inhaled deeply in hopes of taking in the scent of the shampoo they both used to use when they lived together. The scent of washing powder took over his senses, too, and he found himself burying his face into the side of Jisung's neck as he tried harder than anything to avoid tearing up over the fact that they were finally together again. It was only going to be momentary, but it was that sort of moment that meant everything to both boys.

"Why would you risk everything like that, Chenle? You know if a hitman fails to make a kill, he'll be unable to take that person on as a target again, since there's so many other people in the city who can take over instead. And besides, the agency knows that we have a personal connection. In fact, you're not even on my list this time; they asked me to find you and sort you out because they had a feeling that you were trying to find me by committing petty theft. You're just lucky that they liked your work enough to just give you a warning this time."

As much as he knew that he was getting scolded for something serious, Chenle couldn't help but hold Jisung tighter and more protectively. He mumbled something about not meaning to cause harm, but Jisung slowly drew from the hug to stare into his eyes as he continued with his disciplinary scolding. "The condition is that you pay back all of the money that you owe these businesses," he told him, and Chenle immediately felt his stomach flip in response.  
"How am I supposed to do that? Go into the shops and say, 'Hey, I stole something from your shop a few weeks ago, here's the payment for it'? That would end up getting me prosecuted, and I think that that's worse than being killed really."

Thankfully, Jisung shook his head and reached forward to stroke his boyfriend's cheek. "No, if you give me the money for it, I'll sort it out. It'll be anonymous and you won't have to worry about it, but we have a list of everything that you stole on the system and so you'll have to pay the full amount." At that point, he reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a slip of paper with the full amount on it. Chenle figured that it wasn't the right time to look at it since he didn't want to ruin the moment of being with Jisung, so instead he stuffed it into his trouser pocket. He had a rough estimate of how much it was going to be anyway, so he didn't really feel the need to find out exactly how much it was going to be.

"When can I get it to you?" he asked, hoping that it was obvious that he was dropping a hint about them meeting again. Jisung seemed to understand exactly what he meant, and his lips twitched into a sweet smile as he thought about it.  
"How about next week on Monday? Are you busy after school then?"  
"That's a while away," Chenle pointed out with a childish pout, and Jisung simply raised an eyebrow at him.  
"I am working, you know. I can't just drop everything that I'm currently working on to meet up with my boyfriend, even if it part of business as well. I have to hit the next target tomorrow, and then my weekend is filled up with paperwork. Unless you're willing to do that for me, unfortunately you're going to have to accept that I need a few days for myself - or rather, my work - before we meet again."

Chenle tried to insist that he could help out, but Jisung simply refused and told him that they would meet on Monday instead. There was a pause in which Chenle simply stared at him in disapproval until finally Jisung gave a sigh and pulled him forward into another hug again. "Wear something nice. I'm taking you out on a dinner date. No one is going to think anything is up if two kids are out on a dinner date together."

He parted from Chenle with a gentle kiss after insisting that he needed to get back to work, and then Chenle was left alone in the alleyway again. Although at least now, he didn't really feel alone as such; rather, he had a strange feeling that Jisung was with him again. The meeting had been very short-lived and he had honestly hoped that something more drastic would have happened, such as another kidnap or taking him away for a few days, but frankly a date was good enough for him at the moment. He figured that he would deal with it for the moment and simply look forward to the fact that he and his boyfriend were going to be spending time with each other. There would be no need to hide this time and they could be affectionate in public together. Chenle could even tell his parents that he was due to be going on a date with someone and there would be no suspicion raised.

So that was exactly what he did. He went straight home and waited for his parents to finally arrive home at about eight o'clock, and he immediately blurted out that he was asked out on a date on Monday. He was thankful for the fact that his father seemed to be excited for him, and although his mother was obviously rather protective of him, she was still really nice about the fact that he was planning on dating someone and seemed relieved that he was getting back to normal life following his 'kidnap'. She even offered to help him pick out something to wear when it came to it so that he could look his very best, and then suggested that she could take the afternoon off work so that she could take him over to the restaurant.

Of course, Chenle knew that it was just part of the relief that he wasn't permanently psychologically damaged as a result of being away from home for a long period of time, and although they were trying to make things better with him, it didn't necessarily mean that things were going to get better at home. In fact, he was certain that most of the happiness over the date was a result of them wanting him to be able to have someone around to keep him company whenever they weren't there. A partner would certainly provide that sort of thing for him, and so they were relieved that someone else was stepping up in his life.

Regardless, though, Chenle was happy now that everything was starting to look up for him again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a full week since I updated last and I'm sorry about that!! Everything suddenly came tumbling down and so I'm going to end up being pretty slow with the updates at the moment in comparison to how I was over the summer, but I won't be dropping them completely and hopefully we can still get an update out every week!!
> 
> Thank you for reading!! <3


	12. Teething Problems

The date was absolutely everything that Chenle had been looking forward to. He had been incredibly anxious leading up to it, having never actually been on a date before, but he knew from the moment that he saw his boyfriend waiting for him that it was going to be perfect. It involved a lot of romance between him and Jisung, in which they actually got to walk around in public together, hand in hand, and it was only made better by the fact that Jisung had picked somewhere particularly nice for them to eat. It was a bit expensive, in Chenle's opinion, but Jisung had insisted that he could afford to take his boyfriend to a place that was posh for their first proper public date. He worked a lot and earned enough money for them to both be able to eat a lot of delicious food, so he was going to take advantage of that. Besides, until that point they had been unable to go out together, and honestly Chenle ended up accepting purely because of that. He figured that if Jisung really wanted to do something like that for him and make their first date unforgettable, he was more than welcome to do so, just as long as it didn't put him too much out of pocket.

They had both turned up in suits and they looked quite frankly adorable, Chenle decided. He had spent a long time planning his outfit out, so he was absolutely relieved that they were both dressed for the same level of formality, but he hadn't quite expected to be so blown away by the image of his boyfriend when they were face to face again finally. Jisung's suit fit him perfectly and made him look a lot older than he actually was, but it was something that he could feel himself drooling over. The younger boy was incredibly handsome, even more than he usually was, and Chenle wanted nothing more than to grab his face and kiss him right there and then as soon as he was close enough to do so. It was like a dream to see him like that. The sight left tiny little flutters building in Chenle's stomach, which only grew through their time together.

The date had ended up lasting for around three hours in the end. They spent a while wandering around Seoul together until it was time for their reservation, and they made sure to take their time when it came to eating their meals. They even had dessert, which Chenle was thrilled about, and had shared it with each other across the table. The date eventually finished with Chenle going back to Jisung's temporary home, and the two of them spending a short while kissing each other before they were due to part. The elder boy was particularly reluctant to leave, but Jisung was quick to promise him a little symbol of their time together. He couldn't present him with much, just in case the police were to see it and assume that it was related to Chenle's disappearance, but what he could do was leave a little mark on his neck to remember him by until they next met again. He wanted to leave the littlest of bruises with his mouth so that it would be hidden but Chenle would be able to feel it whenever he ran his fingertips over it. That bruise would be the sign that they had been with each other, and it would also be something to keep him safe until they met the following week.

Chenle loved his little bruise as soon as it was made. It wasn't quite as small as he had expected, but it was small enough to hide beneath a high-neck jumper. The bruise stood out perfectly against his pale skin, and Jisung had even made it so that it was a raised bump against his skin. It was something that Chenle could run his fingers over forever and he was certainly planning on doing that as soon as he got home. Yet, for now he was forced to cover it up using the collar of his shirt. It was high enough to keep it hidden perfectly so that his parents wouldn't realise that he ended up going to a private area with his date instead of coming straight home as he had promised, and he was absolutely satisfied by the fact that he knew it was their little secret. They ended up parting with one last gentle kiss, then the elder boy slowly made his way back to his parents' house.

He hadn't quite realised how long he had been out for until he started walking back and realised that the sun was already well on its way to setting. He hadn't really expected it to be that dark, seeing as it had still been incredibly light when they left the restaurant, but perhaps the half hour that they had spent together at Jisung's house was a bit longer than a half hour in the end or something. It was quite a long walk, too; Jisung's temporary house was on the other side of the city and Chenle wasn't massively comfortable with walking through back alleys in the dark, so he ended up taking a long route home. With each step he took, the world around him was growing darker, until finally he was left walking underneath the stars in the final stretch of his journey. He made sure to rush down the final street and up the steps into his house, before taking his key from his pocket and opening the door.

He was surprised to see how quickly his parents jolted as soon as he got back home. They had immediately jumped up off the sofa in one quick motion, as if they had been waiting for him for a long time, and their eyes were locked on him as an unreadable expression took over both of their faces. Apparently, they had taken his late return the worst way possible and had assumed that he had been taken again or something, as they immediately rushed over to him and began shouting at him about how long he had taken to get back. It was incredibly irresponsible of him to disappear for so many hours without telling them where exactly he was going. He should have let them know that he was planning on staying out late. He certainly shouldn't have been out of the house after sundown, even if he had been on a date with someone. Did he know how many children got snatched from the streets when it grew dark and they were walking home on their own? Surely they had told him before that Seoul was incredibly dangerous for children to walk through in the middle of the night as he had done. Did he understand how worried he'd made them by not contacting to say that he was going to be late? He had a phone, so there was no excuse for that sort of behaviour. How could his date leave him to walk back on his own without even considering that was cruelly snatched away from his family for a year? Why did he not call them to ask for a lift back so that he wasn't wandering around the streets?

Chenle was completely overwhelmed by the reaction and just stood there in silence, not knowing whether he should respond to them or not. He knew that the worst idea would probably be to argue with them about it and try to act as if they were worrying over nothing, and he knew his mother well enough to know that he would probably get a clip around the ear for not only talking back to them but talking over them too. Instead, he simply stood there and took it, feeling worse and worse about himself as time went on until finally his mother burst into tears and lunged forward to hug him tightly. Chenle could still feel that his body was tense underneath her touch, but he was much happier that she was hugging him rather than yelling in his face now. Soon his father moved forward to join her, although he wasn't nearly as emotional, and eventually Chenle was forced to relax as he waited for them to finally let him go.

It took a good five minutes or so for that to happen, and his heart began to sink in his chest as he realised that his mother was still crying. He hated seeing her cry; her eyes would immediately puff up into red mounds on her face, to the point where she could barely see past her eyelids, and her nose would start running badly before coming to rest in the curve of her cupid's bow. Her bottom lip would always be damp and swollen from the way that she would bite and lick at them as she cried, and her cheeks would be stained with ugly black streaks from her eye makeup. On top of all of that, he instantly felt a pang of guilt every time he saw her cry, even if it wasn't his fault, and so this particular occasion had left him feeling absolutely awful about how he had made her feel that upset. He tried to comfort her as best as possible by putting on a smile and wiping the black streams from underneath her eyes, but it only became more distracting to him now that the streaks were spread across her face.

He was an irresponsible little boy, she told him through her tears, but she couldn't bear the thought of losing him again. Not only would it look terrible on their part to lose their youngest son for the second time, especially so soon after he returned to them, but they couldn't deal with the emotional struggle of it either. The entire time that Chenle had been away from home, they were absolutely distraught. Their house didn't have the nice atmosphere that a home should have, and it was simply because both parents knew that it was their own fault for not being with their dearest Chenle enough. They couldn't possibly risk it again now that they had it in their mind that he was going to go missing again, and so Chenle was going to stay at home from that point onwards. They were going to get some tutors for him so that he wouldn't have to worry about an abduction on his way home from school, and he wouldn't be able to see the irresponsible person he went on the date with ever again. Any person who left him to walk home on his own when it started to grow dark outside wasn't really the sort of person they wanted him to be affiliated with, so the relationship was to stop immediately.

Chenle's stomach lurched. He felt his heart rate rise instantly when he realised what was happening and he didn't know how to respond other than to give an awkward laugh. "But I love them a lot and I want friends outside of this house," he told them, but his mother shook her head quickly as she looked him directly in the eye.  
"Chenle, I'm not risking you meeting this person again and possibly getting taken. If you want other friends, I can escort you to a public area, such as a park or a movie theatre, but I'm not letting you go off on your own again."

The situation seemed ridiculous and he already found himself unable to handle it. He immediately pushed past so that he could go to his room and spend time alone; after all, his perfect day had been ruined so soon after he got home, and so he figured that he at least needed to try to save it. He would die before he stopped seeing Jisung for good. Not only had Jisung spared his life at a point in time where he was supposed to just murder him without feeling bad about it whatsoever, but he had also given him a reason to live. Admittedly, Chenle had been incredibly self-destructive before he was taken. He did things for attention and in order to punish himself for not feeling like he was good enough for anyone. He didn't take any care of his own health or well-being, and he didn't even care that he was causing problems for other people by being how he was being.

Meeting Jisung had completely changed that. Over the space of their time together, Chenle had developed a lot as a person. He came to understand the feelings of other people and had generally become a more considerate person. He managed to do a job that he was relatively good at, even though he did need a lot of help from Jisung along the way, and he had managed to get over a fear that had been brewing inside of him for some time. He had matured into an adult over the space of a few months and most of all, he'd managed to understand what it truly meant to be in love with another person. They were all valuable things that he almost certainly wouldn't have learned without his boyfriend being there to support him; Jisung had been the one to encourage those sorts of things from him, and he was eternally grateful for receiving such an opportunity to better himself as a person. To be ripped away from all of that would be too painful, too unbearable, to think about. It wasn't the life that Chenle wanted to live, and it wasn't how he could see his future planning out.

So he decided to do what Jisung had told him about when they were discussing his past. He would find ways to sneak out or cheat the system; perhaps place some pillows in his bed and make it seem as if he was asleep in his bed, or wait until his parents were out of the house before sneaking out. He was certain that it wasn't going to be as easy as that, but at the same time he didn't really think that his parents would be anywhere near as extreme as his boyfriend's were. They wouldn't have the heart to lock him in one room, and he wouldn't have to have a dramatic escape.

Chenle knew that he was going to be able to get what he wanted in the end. He always did, whether it was from his parents, from Jisung, or from anyone else. He had his own ways of getting back his freedom, and he absolutely wasn't prepared to settle until he had what he wanted. Granted, it was going to be incredibly difficult to do so, but it was a challenge. Challenges weren't supposed to be easy. That was his new motivator; he was going to be able to see his perfect boyfriend again soon enough, and no amount of restriction from his parents was going to be able to change that whatsoever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dramatic Chenle is seeing this as a sort of Romeo and Juliet story or something, in which they have to be with each other even if it means dying in the process - not great, but something that he'll be seeing in a way that isn't always going to be rational.
> 
> Thank you for reading!! <3


	13. A Fiery Personality

As it turned out, Chenle's parents were absolutely serious about keeping him in the house for the rest of his life. He wasn't allowed out for school and they got a tutor in to give him his usual lessons. He wasn't allowed out to play on the streets or visit his friends. It was his punishment for not being responsible when he was finally trusted to go outside on his own for a few hours. He had essentially dug his own grave and jumped in it for going home with Jisung.

The punishment only got worse when his parents noticed the bite on his neck. It had taken a while for him to slip up with that one, but they had eventually caught him coming out of the bathroom with just a towel wrapped around his waist. His mother had stopped to talk to him and Chenle had completely forgotten about the massive bruise on the side of his neck, but it was only a matter of seconds before he received a stunned reminder that it was there. His mother let out a loud, dramatic gasp when she saw it and hissed a comment about how there was a swollen mark on his skin, and as much as he tried to come up with an excuse for it, she already knew what it was. His mother was quick to grab his arm so that he couldn't move away, then leaned in closer so that she could inspect it.

Chenle was promptly informed of the fact that if he ever came home with a mark like that on his skin when he was older and was allowed to leave the house on his own again, she would get the hospital to check the DNA and dental records matched with the bite so that they would be able to track down the person who did that to him and make sure they paid for it. No excuses were going to get past her this time; she made sure to remind him of how much she hated lovebites and thought that they were absolutely disgusting, and he should have been aware of that well before he decided to test his luck with his date. She knew from that moment that he would have gone home with them, at least for a little while, since that sort of thing wasn't something that was acceptable in public and he would have certainly been dragged home by a responsible adult if he was caught doing that in a public space.

He didn't even make it through the day without another rant from his father about how disgraceful it was that his mother had found a huge bite on his neck. It wasn't something that any respectable young boy did, he told him, and it certainly wasn't something that should be seen on the neck of a minor who belonged to such a well-respected family. Chenle would be receiving a huge punishment if they found out that anyone in the city had seen it and was thinking badly of their family as a result of his actions.

That sort of talk continued for several days until the mark eventually faded. It was all that Chenle would hear about when his parents were home; he was a disappointment to their family for doing something so disgusting, they made the right call by stopping him from ever seeing that date again, whatever. They had painted a picture of Jisung in their minds, in which he was a complete monster who preyed on young boys, and that image wasn't likely to change anytime soon. Suddenly, Chenle was faced with a horrible feeling that he was starting to experience what Jisung experienced when he moved back in his parents; one little slip up had left him with an incredibly restricted lifestyle in which his parents didn't trust him with anything, and he would live his life indoors until he finally reached adulthood and would be able to make decisions for himself. 

Yet, he still had four years before he legally stopped being a minor, and four years was way too long to be cooped up inside. If it was a few months, perhaps he would have been able to handle it, but Chenle knew that he was going to go stir crazy. He wasn't even allowed outside to play in the swimming pool, just in case his parents turned their backs for a moment and he scaled the fence to run away. It was a ridiculous idea, but they really didn't trust him whatsoever and were convinced that he was going to be finding any excuse to leave their house. In their mind, Chenle was a complete risk to himself and other people in the state that he was currently in, and there was absolutely no way for him to break away from that view that they had of him now that it was formed.

The worst part of it, though, was the fact that it meant missing the date with Jisung. He didn't have his boyfriend's phone number or anything so he couldn't contact him to say that there wasn't any chance for them to meet up anymore. He didn't have the opportunity to even sneak out and go through to their meeting point just to be able to let him know that they wouldn't be able to have the date; his parents had locked all of the windows and doors with a key that they kept in a pocket, and there weren't any spares left about in the house just in case he thought that it was a wise idea to try to steal them in order to escape. Chenle tried everything that he could, from trying to pick the locks, to trying to find another thing to use for a key, but it ended up not working whatsoever as he was still left sitting in his room by the time it came to their date.

He was certain that Jisung would be upset with him over it. He had essentially stood him up with no explanation whatsoever and there was no excuse for that sort of behaviour, even if he was trapped in his house without any way of getting out there to be by his side. It was completely and utterly unacceptable, and he hated the fact that he was becoming that sort of boyfriend. Jisung would never get to see how much he hated the fact that he was stuck inside with no chance of getting out, and eventually he would think that perhaps Chenle was no longer interested in him. He would just move on and find someone else to love, and Chenle would be alone once again. No happiness, no boyfriend, and even more miserable than he already was.

Days passed, and Chenle still had absolutely no way to contact Jisung whatsoever. He'd exhausted every plan that he had developed over his time in the house, from trying to find a secret route out of the house to trying to call a phone company in hopes that they would be able to give him his boyfriend's number. Every idea turned out to be completely and utterly ridiculous, and it only took him a few days before his will was completely and utterly shattered by the fact that everything in his life was becoming painfully impossible to deal with. Impossible to contact Jisung, impossible to enjoy himself; just an endless cycle of impossible things taking over his daily routine.

Eventually, it got to the point where he simply had to accept that this was his new future. It was the way that he was going to have to live life from now on.

Whilst he had started out by spending his time searching for ways to leave the place, he eventually decided to just relax and accept the new life that he'd been given by embracing it where he could. Whilst he couldn't leave the house, his parents wouldn't be able to restrict the amount of time that he spent playing video games. He could spend an entire day in his bedroom reading books, or he could sit in front of the television for six hours and just watch whatever programs he wanted to. There was nothing to tell him that that wasn't allowed to do any of that, since his parents couldn't restrict his ability to leave the house and then tell him that he couldn't do other things to entertain himself as well. It was essentially a fool-proof plan to be as lazy as possible without them being able to tell him that that was okay.

In fact, the vast majority of his time was spent watching the television in the end. He quickly played his way through every video game that he owned, read through every book twice, and binge-watched several dramas and movie series. There wasn't much that he could do after that, other than spending all of his time working on the homework that his tutor gave him, and so instead he opted just to flick through the channels on the television for several hours a day, stopping here and there to watch whatever program caught his interest.

"-- And here, you can see the red-crowned crane starting to make its way over--" Flick.  
"-- Want to escape the lowest point in your life, try to love. Luck, like a jackpot--" Flick.  
"-- At the scene of a fire in a warehouse in the Songpa district of Seoul. It is thought that vandals tried to burn the warehouse down, but their reasons for doing so are still unknown. The warehouse has been out of use since August 2016 and has been on sale since earlier this--" Flick.

Flick back. It took a moment for Chenle to realise what he'd heard, but then his interest was completely captured. There were a good few warehouses in that area of Seoul, but for some reason, that specific one seemed to be particularly familiar. For a while he sat there listening to the details, trying to figure out whether it was one that his parents had mentioned having a partnership with or whether it was one that he'd heard about from elsewhere, but then a photo of the burnt warehouse flashed on screen and he quickly realised why it seemed to be familiar to him.

It was the last warehouse that he and Jisung had slept in when they were on the run together. It was the one that he'd walked out of; everything was the same outside the warehouse, from the dumps around the front to the signs nearby and the surrounding warehouses, which were seemingly only partially affected by the fire. Chenle felt his stomach flip as he stared at the screen and tried to figure out why someone would want to set that warehouse on fire when it had been out of use for so long, but then another detail quickly caught his attention.

"The burnt remains of a body were found inside the warehouse. Police are currently trying to get any information that they can about why the person was in there when it was out of use, and whether anyone knows who they are, but their body is so badly bunt that they're planning on doing DNA checks in order to see whether they can find out anymore information about them. From what they can tell, though, it's the body of a teenage boy."

Chenle instantly felt sick when he heard it, even more than he already was from hearing that the warehouse had been set on fire. He wanted more than anything to believe that it was just a coincidence that a teenage boy's body was found inside the warehouse, but it was certainly much more than that. Jisung was the only person to ever go in there, which was why he knew that it was a safe place to stay for a few nights, and he didn't exactly have a solid place to live at the moment so it would make sense for it to be him inside the warehouse.

There was more evidence to say that it was Jisung in comparison to the evidence to say that it was someone else there. There was no denying it; the more Chenle thought about it, the more he was coming to realise that his boyfriend's body was probably laid burnt to a crisp where no one would think to look for him. Either he might have set himself on fire, or it was some awful karma coming to punish Chenle for not turning up to the date. Regardless, though, it left Chenle feeling absolutely awful about the situation and he knew that he needed to do something about it. He needed to find a way to get out of the house so that he could go and investigate the warehouse for any sort of evidence to prove that it wasn't Jisung's body there, just to put his mind at rest and help him to realise that it wasn't his fault that the warehouse came under attack.

Then again, if it was Jisung's body he didn't really know what to do with himself. He would end up blaming himself for the rest of time, but at least he would be able to pay his respects to his boyfriend. It would be the most heartbreaking moment of his life, but at least then he wouldn't even feel the need to leave the house anymore. Jisung was his only reason for wanting to escape, so perhaps him being free of his life as a serial killer would actually prove to be for the best. Jisung wouldn't be forced to kill in order to pay his rent anymore, and Chenle would be able to earn his parents' trust back by not even showing interest in anything other than his new life as a sort of indoor animal.

He spent the rest of the afternoon devising his plan to leave the house, making sure to get everything planned out absolutely perfectly so that it would give him the chance to check the warehouse out. The plan was rather risky, but it was going to end up being the perfect way to get his own way. Chenle was proud of the way that he was able to use everything that his boyfriend had taught him to devise a way of getting out without getting in trouble, and he was more excited than anything to finally make it happen. It would require waiting until the next day until he was alone with one of the maids, but it was going to be absolutely flawless if he managed to pull it off as he'd hoped.

Chenle went to bed that night feeling nervous about what he was planning to do, but frankly it was for the greater good so he promptly decided that it was the only way forward. He needed to see Jisung again, whether he was alive or dead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There are only a few chapters left now!! I hope that you're all anticipating their future and whether Jisung is alive or not, since it's gradually coming to critical points in the fic!! Will Chenle end up getting out?? Will things work out okay??
> 
> I'm trying super hard to do more regular updates, so please bear with me!! I've opened a Tumblr for this account in hopes that it'll encourage more regularities with this, so please check it out!! I'll be posting writing things, potential future projects, prompts, things relating to fics (e.g. maps or "what we know already" for certain fics) along with when I'm planning on updating, once I've posted this week's updates and can establish a more regular timetable!! It's camelabrakedabra.tumblr.com
> 
> Thank you for reading!! <3


	14. Scarfing it Down

Chenle had a unique talent for creating fires while cooking, and it certainly came in handy at times like this.

It was a rather impressive plan if he did say so himself. In fact, it was so _him_ that it wasn't even apparent that he created the fire intentionally. It just looked like something that his parents would tut at and proclaim that Chenle messed up again, before giving him a firm telling-off and sending him to his room as soon as the fire was out.

This one, however, wasn't done while his parents were in the house. He was alone with the maid, who only let him make cookies because he looked so depressed when sitting on the sofa with nothing to do. If he couldn't go outside, she figured that he would be okay to do something that he didn't usually do inside on that particular day. After all, it stimulated his mind to be finding a recipe online and making the batter up, and the waiting process for them to bake was wonderful when the smell of vanilla began to trickle into the house. So when he asked, he got permission immediately. It was as simple as that, and he instantly knew that the day was going to be a success.

And he began. He gathered everything up, as usual, picking his least favourite oat cookie recipe so that he wouldn't feel all too bad about setting them on fire, and then tossed everything into a bowl. He tried to practice patience with it, not wanting to make it evident that he was way too excited to get them into the oven but simultaneously not wanting to dwell on the preparation process in case it became too obvious that he was planning something. Chenle wasn't exactly the most skilled baker in the world and often had little attention to detail, so the chances of him spending forever on the batter were very slim.

By the time he finished, the kitchen had looked exactly how it usually did. Packets of ingredients dotted all over the place, flour and sugar all over the kitchen sides and floor, and a sticky mark where some of the batter had dripped off the spoon. They weren't all the same size on the tray, but that didn't matter, as the actual cookies themselves were somewhat irrelevant now. It was all about the baking process now.

The oven was initially preset to 175, but this recipe called for a temperature of 220. It was a risk to have it that high since there was a chance that it would end up destroying his parents' oven as the cookies baked, but it was a risk that Chenle was willing to take. After all, they had a maid to deal with that if necessary and his parents were hardly going to ask him to clean it even if he was the person who caused it to happen. He would merely get scolded for it and would have to apologise for giving the maid extra work, but frankly, the worst thing that could happen by this point was getting sent to his room. He was already grounded and was hardly eating enough food as it was for them to be able to take away more meals, and they certainly wouldn't be able to punish him if he turned on the tears as he told them that he wanted to make them cookies as a treat for when they got home from work.

At that point, all he could do was wait. He made his way through to the main room again so that he could sit and watch whatever show had come up on screen while he was out of the room, and then he waited as patiently as possible until eventually, around fifteen minutes later, the smell of smoke was impossible to ignore anymore. He made a point of running in there, being as dramatic as possible in the process to make it seem as if it was an accident, then promptly opened the oven door.

That was what started the fire properly. The sudden rush of oxygen was enough to make it spread quickly from the greasy cookie tray to the oven itself. Chenle was relieved that the cupboards were flame retardant; otherwise, it would have been a lot more challenging to deal with than he had imagined. It was something that he had completely forgotten about while he was getting himself so excited by the plan, but it was surely something that he was going to have to remember for next time. He yelled out for the maid as the fire alarm began to sound, and she came rushing in to see him stood in front of the fire looking helpless.

It was her job to deal with it, as the only adult in the house, and she certainly didn't look happy about that whatsoever. She immediately sent Chenle out to the front of the house with a phone to call the fire department as she tried to smother it with a fire blanket, and that was his cue to leave. Of course, he wasn't the sort of person who would drop her in it and risk her life by not calling the fire department first, but it was giving him the freedom to leave while she was still covering the fire up. She would be outside with him as soon as the fire was definitely isolated to just the oven, so he had to move quickly to escape before he was attached to her hip once more.

The call was quick, giving the few details that he could give to the fire department before he promptly stuffed the phone into his pocket and started on his way towards the warehouse. There was no point in waiting around any longer; the maid was an adult, and she would know when to leave it and come out onto the front lawn. She certainly knew what to do when the fire was tackled. She was a _maid_ , after all; it was her job to know how to get the smell of smoke out of their kitchen before his parents came home and realised that something was burning while they were away. He would tell her that he went in search of help once he'd called the fire department since they had estimated taking a little longer than usual for an isolated fire. Chenle just didn't want his maid or family home to end up burning to the ground as a result of an oven fire, so he went in search of someone who would be with them immediately.

The rush of adrenaline that came as he was running was something that he hadn't felt in a long time. Chenle was finally able to feel the breeze on his face and in his hair, and it was the best feeling in the entire world. It made him miss his freedom more than anything. This was certainly something that he could get used to again, even though it wasn't under the best circumstances. Having to escape was bad enough, but having to do so under the premise that his boyfriend could be dead was even worse. Yet, Chenle tried his hardest to keep his mind off that; he had been trying to convince himself that it was just a coincidence since he found out, and so he was expecting it to be the case when he did finally get to the warehouse.

Of course, police were dotted around the front of the warehouse and there was tape everywhere, but it was hardly going to stop Chenle. He and Jisung hadn't entered the warehouse from the front entrance the first time anyway; that was too obvious and increased the chance that they would end up being caught, so they ended up using an entrance around the back that was specifically made for that purpose. He was forced to walk the long way around the warehouse so that he could access it from a nearby alleyway, and while it had just made the anticipation a thousand times worse, he knew that it had to be done. After all, what would he say to the police? "Hi, I think my boyfriend is dead inside that building, I'm just going to go in and check"?

He dragged himself through the main streets until he finally found the right alleyway. It was a bit of a walk to the end and Chenle even had to scale a fence to get in, but it was ultimately going to be worth it in the end. The last stretch was incredibly painful for him, though; he didn't know what he would find from looking around the warehouse, but he had a feeling that he wouldn't be all that fond of it.

The entrance was a tight squeeze, and he was forced to hide behind a huge shelf as soon as he entered since there was one police officer inside the warehouse too. Chenle cursed under his breath; he had expected that no one would still be in there by that point, but he was just standing around looking through his notes on a tablet computer. It was rather unfortunate since Chenle was too far away to see what the records said, but it was something that he would just have to deal with. After all, it was unlikely that they would find out anything about the body without the media immediately finding out too and notifying the public. It was probably something about their suspects or something instead.

Chenle hoped that he would be gone after around ten or twenty minutes, but he was still there after that time. He was starting to get nervous; there was only a certain amount of time that he would be able to get out of the house and make it seem as if he was genuinely going to search for help. By this point, he had been gone for so long that he would probably have to buy the maid an apology gift and some cleaning products to make things seem more believable, rather than leading her to believe that it was an intentional fire.

By that point, he decided that his best option was to start looking around the surrounding area. Of course, most things were destroyed by the fire. There were a load of documents in cardboard boxes when they stayed there, and naturally, evey box had been burnt to ash as soon as the fire started to spread. It left a lot of the rows of shelves completely bare; after all, most of the things that had been stored there in the past were moved when the original owners of the warehouse decided to sell it, and the papers were all there temporarily whilst they were waiting for someone to buy the building. They were the least important aspect of the warehouse, so it didn't even matter that they were destroyed.

He continued to look around for a little while until eventually something ended up catching his eye. It was on a shelf a few feet away and he couldn't really tell what it was supposed to be, but he had a strange feeling that it was intentionally left there for him. He had no evidence to prove it, but it seemed so deliberately placed near the back of the warehouse near the secret entrance that it almost certainly wouldn't have been left by a police officer. If they had someone in the warehouse even though all of the evidence had supposedly been collected, surely they would have posted someone at the secret entrance if they found that, too.

It was a risk he had to take. Chenle decided that dashing through the small gap between the shelves was the right way to go about it since it meant that the officer was less likely to notice him going past. The computer screen wasn't positioned in a way that the officer would be able to see his reflection, so it was just making sure that he wasn't seen in the corner of the officer's eye. He would only be seen for a split second if that was the case, since there were other shelves in front of the one that he was hidden behind as well, and they blocked the vast majority of the view. He was particularly far away as well, which aided his mission a bit; the few steps between the shelves was ultimately easier than he had initially imagined, and so he was able to reach the item with ease and without drawing any attention to himself.

A quick look showed him that it was a black scarf. Chenle had been surprised by it when he first took hold of it; when he realised that it was fabric, he had initially imagined that it was flame retardant or charred, but this scarf was incredibly soft and didn't have any obvious signs to suggest that it had been involved in the fire. In fact, it didn't even smell of smoke when he lifted it closer to his nose. There was now no doubt that it had been placed there in hopes that someone would find it, and Chenle hoped more than anything in the entire world that it had been placed there for him by a very alive, well Jisung who had arranged this sort of thing in order to see him again.

He lifted it up so that he could wrap it around himself in order to live the fantasy that he had created in his own mind, when he noticed a slip of paper attached to the tassles on the end of the scarf that was at the bottom of the pile. The paper wasn't damaged either, confirming his suspicion that it had been planted there with purpose, and so he quickly snatched it up to read what was written on it.

"My boyfriend," it started, drawing a goofy smile out of the boy when he read it, "I don't appreciate being stood up, but I have a feeling that something must have happened to you. Perhaps your parents found out about us and weren't happy. I know that you would let me know if you weren't feeling us anymore. I know that you're not the sort of person to stand someone up on a date, especially when it comes with free food. I just want you to know that I forgive you for letting me stand outside waiting for you for four hours as I hoped that you would turn up."

It was dramatic, but Chenle knew that it was an attempt to play on his emotions. It was only meant as a joke, even if it did make him feel a tiny bit bad. "I left this by our entrance, knowing that if I set this warehouse on fire, you would want to explore and find out whether I was dead. You're so curious and I appreciate it. I'm not dead, by the way. This hasn't been written from beyond the grave, and you know that because otherwise, I'd be haunting your ass for standing me up. If you get this, I need you to find a way to get out again and meet me at W6 on the day of the week and time that we first met."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> He's managed to escape once now, but can he do it again?? It'll probably mean getting to be more creative with his approaches, but he might be able to do it!!
> 
> The last thousand words are a bit quick but I don't know, it seems to work out better than dwelling on an empty warehouse?? Sorry for that though~
> 
> Thank you for reading!! <3


	15. Bleeding Heart

Getting out the first time was reatively easy, considering the amount of control measures his parents had put in place to stop him from escaping, but getting out a second time was going to be a huge pain in the ass.

Chenle spent forever trying to figure out how to get out, but nothing seemed to be coming to mind. At least not anything that he could actually work with. He was rather unimpressed by it, frankly. He'd used up his best method straight away, and whilst he didn't regret using the fire to get out in order to check that his boyfriend was actually still alive, he hated the fact that it'd come to that so soon. If he thought any other method would've worked, he certainly would've tried that instead. Yet, here he was, having to be monitored every time he was in the kitchen from that point on. His parents hadn't been impressed to find out about what had happened, even though Chenle had insisted that it was an accident and the maid had managed to clean everything up. Luckily, slipping her an apology gift was enough to stop her from revealing that he went on a run for around an hour after the incident, but it wasn't going to work a second time.

It was bugging him, if he was honest. There was no way to get the key before his mother went to work, and even if he managed to snatch it up, there was no chance that he'd be able to do anything with it. He didn't have any plastercine to copy the shape of the key, and she certainly wouldn't be leaving the house without it. If she thought that he'd taken it, she would probably give him a strip search and then ransack his room, so there was no chance of him getting away with that one. Likewise, there was absolutely no chance of him being able to play in the garden or even going out to mow the lawn as a surprise for his parents. The maid wasn't that stupid, and after his runaway stunt earlier in the week, she was keeping a closer watch over him than usual.

That was when he decided that it was best to be honest with her. Not completely honest, obviously, but honest enough for her to realise that he had a genuine reason to leave the house. He was going to explain everything to her, including the reasons why he needed to leave and go out for a few hours, and he would just hope that she would understand. It wasn't exactly her place to say that he could go out or not, but he guessed that if it seemed as if he had a genuine reason to leave the house, she might be able to turn a blind eye to what he was doing.

Chenle was going to do what he did best. He was going to be incredibly dramatic and turn on the waterworks if she didn't agree to give him time out of the house.

He planned his approach perfectly, and she knew from the moment that he went over to her that something was up. She stared at him with a suspicious look on her face, as if she was already anticipating his request, and her eyes only grew narrower when he flashed his winning smile at her. "I'm really sorry to bother you," he started in the most innocent manner that he could possibly muster, "But I need to talk to you about something."  
"I think I already know what sort of thing you're going to say. You've got a taste for the outside, haven't you?"

As much as she seemed as if she was expecting his question, Chenle hadn't once expected that she would hit the nail on the head so quickly. He was the surprised one for once, and he stared at her in complete disbelief for a moment before snapping back to reality. "Yes. I mean, no. Not quite. Sort of," he stuttered, trying to figure out what he wanted to say and how to word it, "I mean, there's something about that, but it's not quite that. Does that make sense? Can I sit down and talk to you like an adult really quickly please?"

The maid still appeared to be rather suspicious about his request, but seemingly decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. Chenle didn't expect any different; she had been working for his family since he was just a few months old and so she had taken over the responsibility of mothering him whilst his own mother was at work. As much as they were supposed to have a professional relationship, with her being an employee of his parents and all, they did have a rather affectionate relationship. Not so much that he could go to her about anything, but enough for him to talk to her if he really did need something. She was always there to listen to him if he needed someone there and tried to take care of his feelings as much as possible.

They went through to Chenle's bedroom in silence, and then both perched on the edge of the bed. That moment was the worst; Chenle could feel his heart starting to rise into his throat as he tried to figure out how he wanted to introduce the topic. He'd gone into the situation feeling confident, but now he was starting to feel his nerves rising, despite the fact that the worst thing she could possibly do was reject his request to cover for him. She wasn't the sort of person to report that sort of thing back to his paretns just to spite him, so it was a completely irrational fear that everyhting would go wrong if he didn't get his words out properly.

"Chenle, is everything okay? What did you want to ask me?" she prompted, in hopes that it would encourage him to start with what he wanted to say. Chenle finally took a deep breath before looking her directly in the eyes and taking the plunge. "I never told you about what happened when I was taken, did I?" he asked as he forced a brave face. When she looked at him with curiosity in her eyes he simply continued. "I had a sort of adopted brother in a way. I didn't tell anyone about him because I didn't want them to find him and put him into care. His parents died when he was about ten years old or something, just after he got taken. And then he lived with the man who took me until I met him. He was a few months younger than me and he was incredibly cute and he was my best friend."

The maid seemed to be incredibly engaged but remained silent as she listened to him. Chenle knew from that that he'd completely captured her attention, and he had to try harder than anything to keep his smirk hidden below the surface. "We escaped together but then he ran away and he was living in warehouses so that our kidnapper couldn't find him, but also he wouldn't get taken into care. He hadn't had parents for so long that he preferred to look after himself and didn't want his freedom taken away, so I let him get on with it without saying anything. I met up with him a few times after school and he seemed like he was okay. But then there was that fire in the warehouse and they found a child's body in there..."

That was when he trailed off. He didn't really need to say any other words, since the maid instantly understood what he meant. He watched as her eyes suddenly widened and she stared in complete horror. "Do you think it was him?" she finally asked after a minute or so, and Chenle just gave a little shrug.  
"I can't be sure, but I want to find out. And when I went to get help the other day, I had to go and check the warehouse too, since I needed to know that it wasn't him. When I was there, I found a note saying that he wasn't dead but I needed to meet one of his friends from the street to know where he is. I know the friend well, too, and he put in information that only we would know so that I knew it was from him and he knew that only I would understand the secret codes in the message."

"And you need to know that he's safe, so you want me to let you go out for a few hours. Is that correct, Chenle?"

She took the bait better than he expected. Chenle forced some tears to gloss over his eyes as he looked up at her and gave a nod, and he was certain that he saw her heart breaking through her eyes. "You know I'm not supposed to do that," she pointed out, and Chenle chose it as that moment to blink so that a single tear rolled down his cheek. He gave a little nod. "I understand. It would be breaching your contract to go against what my parents tell you to do, and you shouldn't have to lose your job for something that I shouldn't be worried about. I'm sure he knows how to look after himself." He was surprised at how much his voice quaked as he spoke; it genuinely sounded as if he was really upset about it, and it was enough to make his maid reach forward to pull him into a tight hug.

There was complete silence between them for the moment, with Chenle thinking about how it would feel if he'd found out that Jisung was genuinely dead so that he would be able to let the tears fall in a constant ugly stream down his cheeks, and the maid just stroked his hair gently as she tried to comfort him. "What if I took you out so that you could buy your mother a birthday gift and you just so happened to run off for an hour when I turned my back?" she eventually asked as she nuzzled her face into his hair. "I'm sure your mother will permit us to go out to the shops for a while, especially if it's in order to get a gift for her, and so we might be able to make it work for us. You would just have to promise to check in with me every twenty minutes and come back at a reasonable time, though, okay?"

The entire exchange was just full of surprises for Chenle. The tears that fell from that point were genuine tears of relief, as opposed to the forced ones that had come up until that point. He pulled her closer and buried his face in her shoulder, somehow managing to stammer a few words about how she was his favourite person in the entire universe.

And so it was all planned out. The maid went to his mother later that evening, suggesting that she could take Chenle on the specific day that he'd requested, and after around ten minutes of convincing his mother that she would keep him right next to her the entire time, they were finally given permission to go ahead. It was an absolute blessing; as much as they had planned it out rather well, Chenle hadn't actually thought that any of it would end up playing out. It seemed like the most optimistic yet unrealistic plan that he could've possibly come up with, yet it ended up being the plan that would allow him to see his beautiful Jisung again, There was no need to sneak out or betray the maid again, and there was less chance of her getting in trouble as a result of his actions using this method.

Finally the day came and Chenle made sure to dress up relatively nice ready to go out. It was still something relatively practical that allowed him to run, but it was nice enough for him to not feel bad about going to see his boyfriend whilst looking like a complete and utter mess. He checked his hair and teeth around eight times before they left the house, and then waited for the exact right time to put their plan into action.

As with the first time that Chenle escaped, he felt free again as soon as they started walking through the city. The maid told him when about he should run away during their outing, making sure to give him exact information about where they would be at the time and what she would say to him. It was just in case people who knew Chenle's mother were around and would be reporting everything back to her.

As soon as they hit the main city, they began to act completely natural. It was almost as if they hadn't planned anything at all; it was jsut a regular trip with the maid and her employer's son, in which they were enjoying each other's company and having a relaxing day.

Chenle could barely sit still as he waited for the time to come. Every minute was painfully slow and they stayed in each place for much longer than he'd hoped, but then finally it came to the point where he could make his escape. "I need to go to the bathroom," the maid informed him, "Will you just wait at the table for me to get back? I don't really think it's appropriate for you to wait right outside of the bathroom for me." That was his cue. Of course he would wait for her, he said, but then as soon as she was out of sight, he sprinted out of the coffee shop as if he was fleeing from the police again.

He didn't stop for even a moment. Chenle had spent the past few days mapping out the quickest way to reach the proposed meeting point, so he followed the exact route that he'd come up with. He didn't know how early he was going to be, but he was absolutely fine with waiting for Jisung for as long as it took him to get there. Just so long as he actually made it there, he didn't care what else happened. The only thing he could think about was his handsome boyfriend and the fact that he would be in his arms again very shortly. Ntohing else mattered anymore; he was going to finally get the confirmation that he needed to settle his mind and allow him to sleep properly, and everything would suddenly be better. It would all be fixed and he wouldn't have to worry about it anymore.

Fianlly, he reached the warehouse. He went inside in order to check whether Jisung was there or not, and was honestly rather disappointed with the fact that his boyfriend wasn't there just yet. A part of him had always expected that Jisung would have been there a lot earlier, but then again, realistically it would have been a huge risk when there were so many police officers around the city at the moment. So he waited in complete silence, anticipating every single shadow that passed him until eventually one of them was in the shape of a boy. Chenle jolted up, feeling relief suddenly wash over him.

As soon as Jisung was fully in sight, Chenle threw himself at his boyfriend and smashed their lips together hard enough to knock them both completely off balance. He no longer cared, though; this was everything that he'd needed for so long.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so we needed a nice chapter to finish off with, because I can't quite make that sort of promise for the rest of the chapters. There are three left, and they're going to be absolute hell ones. Both to write and to read.
> 
> Good luck with that.
> 
> Thank you for reading!! <3


	16. Cutting Ties

"Jisung, I can't do this anymore," Chenle breathed as he buried his face into his boyfriend's shoulder.

They had gone back to Jisung's place and curled up on the bed together so that they would be able to feel more connected for a little while. There was only so much time before Chenle had to return to the maid, and so they needed to feel that bit of closeness in order to keep them going. It was rather strange since Chenle had expected to be actually doing things as opposed to just laying there, but he was hardly complaining when he got to hear his boyfriend's heart thudding in his chest and the sensation of Jisung's finger pads pressing into his skin.

"It's okay, we'll figure something out for you," Jisung insisted, but Chenle simply shook his head as he tried to move closer. There was barely any space between them as it was, to the point where Chenle was pretty much laying on top of him, but neither of them particularly minded that additional bit of closeness. If Chenle was going to end up on top of Jisung, so be it; they were comfortable enough with each other to not be bothered by that, and the elder boy wasn't exactly big enough to crush him with his weight.  
"I don't want to go back," he insisted with a sigh, "Did I not just tell you that my mother tried to keep me inside? I have to go and get her a gift after this, just so that I can pretend that that was why I had to go outside. She wasn't even all too fond of that idea, either."

Jisung claimed to understand that it was a huge issue and was sending his boyfriend completely stir crazy, but frankly, Chenle was convinced that he didn't quite get it. He'd spent enough time without his parents to not have to worry about that, and the freedom was something that he had managed to nab pretty early on. Chenle, on the other hand, just had to deal with the fact that he was in hell when it came to his parents, and he was essentially going to die of old age in the house.

Which actually sparked quite an interesting idea for him.

"Jisung, how did you kill your parents?" he asked, then quickly realised how insensitive it must've sounded, which resulted in him apologising profusely until his boyfriend insisted that it was completely okay. He was, contrarily, rather concerned about the fact that Chenle was asking him that sort of question, although the devilish look in the elder boy's eye told him exactly what he was thinking. Jisung let out a long sigh, dragging out the time for his response even further by rubbing his face with both hands, and then he looked up sadly at him.

"Have you honestly thought about this? Like, seriously? It's a pretty big deal and you know if you actually kill your family, you're never going to see them again, right? If this is just to be dramatic, I'd recommend not doing it." Chenle pouted when he heard that and defensively crossed his arms over his chest, shuffling back a few inches to show that he was annoyed. "Do you think I would be talking about killing off my family just to be dramatic, Jisung?"  
"Well, I don't know," Jisung replied, punctuating his comment with an exasperated sigh, "I don't know what you'd do because honestly it's a really bad situation but you've found ways to sneak out. I killed my parents as a last resort because there was no other way. Are you absolutely sure that you want to make such a permanent decision when you still have that little bit of flexibility?"

Chenle just shuffled back further in response, tucking his arms even tighter against his body. "I snuck out to see you and you're just treating me like a baby."  
"I'm not! I'm..." Jisung trailed off for a moment and ran a hand through his own hair as he tried to think of a way to put his feelings across. It was proving to be difficult for him, but eventually he found the words he needed and simply pulled Chenle back towards him. "If you're genuinely considering this and you don't think you're going to regret it, I'll help you. I want you to be trapped in that house as much as you want to be trapped in there; I just don't think it's all that right taking such an extreme approach to it so soon is all. But if that's what you want, I'll help you out with it."

Of course that was going to be the answer eventually. Chenle knew it well; he had Jisung wrapped so tightly around his little finger that he was always going to get what he wanted in the end. It was inevitable, really; he'd been acting especially bratty, even more than he usually would, in hopes that it would get him the desired response, and so when it was given to him, the defensive attitude was dropped quickly. A sweet smile and resumed snuggles replaced it, and Jisung just sighed again, knowing full well that he had fallen for his boyfriend's cunning plan. He could hardly back out now that he'd offered to help out, though, which was the added bonus as far as Chenle was concerned. The plan was going to go well, and he knew that right from the start.

"First of all," Jisung started as he wrapped his arms a little tighter around his boyfriend, "How do you want to kill them? Knives, drugs, anything else? You have to think about this first because consistency is key. If you don't have enough knowledge about how a certain drug works, I suggest not bothering with it because chances are, it's going to affect both of your parents differently, and then it'll become a bit awkward because the police and forensics guys will be looking for traces of it on fingers and on yourself if you're pretending to be dead along with them. You would also need to copy any side effects, such as vomiting, frothing at the mouth, and the sorts."

Chenle hesitated for a moment before shaking his head. "I don't think I want to use drugs. I'm pretty good with knives, though," he pointed out with another sweet smile, "You saw me working with one and I've done a few kills like that so I think it might be the best option." Jisung gave a hum of approval, seemingly agreeing with the idea, and then promptly moved on to talk about the knives.  
"Do you know how to stab in order to make it look like someone came into your house and murdered your entire family?"

This time, the elder boy shrugged before letting his eyes rest on the floor. Jisung waited in silence for him to explain what he meant, but when no answer came, he wasn't too shy to bring it up. "Chenle, have you been thinking about this more than you let on? I thought from the way you'd said it that it was a new idea, but I suppose that you might have just jogged your own memory for something that you've been thinking about a lot." He watched carefully as his boyfriend looked up at him with apologetic eyes, and then gave a little nod.

"Actually, I was thinking about staging it so that it looks like a double murder and suicide all in one." Jisung seemed to be rather thrown off by the idea, but Chenle was quick to show exactly how much he'd thought about it.

He wasn't out to his parents just yet. It was something that he'd been planning on leaving for a long time, since he didn't know what would happen if they found out that the bruise on his neck a little while ago was from another boy's mouth. Throwing all of that at them would have almost certainly resulted in him being grounded for the rest of his life. There was no doubt about it; his parents were ever so slightly homophobic, even though they pretended not to be, and every time it was even hinted that their youngest son might be attracted to other boys, they would instantly start flipping out and giving excuses. As a result, it seemed to fit quite perfectly, even though it wasn't going to anything big. He was considering actually telling them before he took their lives, but it wasn't an absolute necessity. That would just be to add to the drama.

His mother would be the main victim. He would catch his father doing anything and take him down on the spot, and his father wouldn't even do so much as to scream out from pain. He was generally a very quiet man, even if he was experiencing unbearable pain, so Chenle didn't even need to worry about him for the most part. His mother, on the other hand, was always incredibly loud and was generally the root of his problems. She was the one to have proposed the ban on his outside life, and she was the one who they always had to answer to if anything ever went wrong. In a way, she was the boss of the house, and that was what probably caused the most problems for them.

He wanted to make her death drag out. Perhaps bleeding to death or something similar. He didn't necessarily want to hurt her unnecessarily, like with a blunt knife or with multiple stab wounds, but he wanted her to know exactly why he was doing what he was doing. She needed to know that her actions resulted in him hating himself and considering taking his life a long time ago and that he didn't appreciate her approach to parenting. Perhaps he would've been okay with being left inside all day if she'd been home with him, acting like a real mother, but for the most part she wasn't even there and he was left to dwell over the fact that he got caught and his mother was punishing him for that sort of thing. It didn't feel as if he was being 'protected from harm' in the slightest, and he supposed that that was the problem, really.

Chenle would then cut himself to make it seem as if he'd genuinely taken his own life. He would probably take some painkillers or something, although he would keep to the regular amount and flush the remaining pills down the toilet so that the police wouldn't be able to find them, and then he would lay in his mother's arms and wait to 'die'. Of course, he would probably need some sort of drug to make him look as if he was dead; Chenle knew that it existed somewhere, but he had no idea of how to get it or how to even go about administering it. That was where Jisung came in; he would take it to Chenle's house at some point and post it through the letterbox for him so that he would be able to execute the plan perfectly and make it seem as if he was dead without that actually happening.

Jisung seemed rather shocked by the amount of planning that his boyfriend had done so far. He supposed that he had had a lot of time to work on it up until that point, but at the same time, it was so extensive that he could've sworn that Chenle had some experience with that sort of thing. Perhaps he'd checked it up online or something, Jisung suggested, but either way it was a pretty damn good plan. If it worked out well, it would be the most dramatic, over-the-top way of escaping his parents' house, but at the same time, he wouldn't be followed by the police anymore either. When he seemed dead, that was it. Jisung even knew a guy who worked in the local morgue, since he needed to dispose of the bodies somehow and a person who wasn't trained probably wouldn't know how to do so properly. That guy would probably be able to help them with getting Chenle back to the safety of his boyfriend's home, where they would be able to reach their happily ever after.

_Happily ever after._

Those three words replayed in Chenle's head for the rest of their time together. It seemed really stupid, but it gave him a strange sense of thrill knowing that he and Jisung would be living their lives as if they were in a fairy tale. It wasn't quite a Disney-style story - rather, much more like a Grimm version of the tale - but it was going to work out well in the end.

That was all he wanted. He lived for every moment that they shared together and no longer cared about who got hurt whilst they were trying to make their arrangement more permanent. As childish as it was, a little part of him even wanted to watch everything destruct around them. After all, that would give them the fresh start that they needed as soon as his parents were out of the picture. Now that he could see his freedom on the horizon, he was just preparing himself for the moment where his knife would break the skin of his mother's torso and pierce her stomach. That would be his finale.

Chenle was certain that he wasn't fully with it as he was walking back to the maid. His head was feeling light, as if it was even higher than the clouds, and his steps no longer felt real. His knees would lock too hard with every step, which left him feeling like a ball-jointed doll pretending to be a human boy. He supposed that it was a side effect of talking about something so violent and horrible with his boyfriend whilst they were holding each other like that, as if it was just a far-off fantasy outside of their little protected bubble, but he was strangely happy to know that it was out in the air finally.

The maid didn't even notice that much was wrong, other than the fact that Chenle was a lot quieter than usual. He held the gift up to show her without even bothering to speak about it, and mostly hummed in acknowledgement when he was being spoken to. There was rarely a question that needed an answer, but if one did come up, he would always answer in his most gentle voice.

Perhaps it was his brain starting to settle into the idea that he was going to commit a proper murder, free from commission or self-defence. He didn't really mind it, though; if that was the case, his mind was probably coming to accept the fact that it needed to be done, and no amount of avoiding taking drastic measures was going to get him out of the house anytime sooner.

This was the last resort, and Chenle needed it more than anything in the entire world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So you know where this is going, then
> 
> It seemed like a pretty big spoiler, but here's to anticipating next week's chapter!!
> 
> Thank you for reading!! <3


	17. Love Kills

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reminder: BOLD gives details of the deaths

Chenle was rather excited to get started on his plan, and thankfully Jisung was quick when it came to delivering the necessary items in his house once he was back home. It was great, since he even managed to drop in a knife alongside the various drugs that he'd provided. Looking through the various gifts that he was given suddenly gave Chenle a sense of self again, to the point where he was very quickly slipping back towards his hitman mentality again. It was a relief that he knew what to do still, even after so much time away from that sort of lifestyle, as he'd expected that perhaps he might have needed some time to get back into it and would end up having to practice on a smaller scale before putting his plan into action, but by the time he'd looked through everything that Jisung had sent him, he felt confident in his ability to just go for it instead.

Checking through the drugs, Chenle had been given a fair few vials to work with. As Jisung had informed him, they were colour-coded with different lids so that it wouldn't be obvious to anyone who found them that they contained specific drugs. He was to leave them in a very specific place so that Jisung would be able to move them when he "found" their bodies, and so Chenle made sure to tidy around that spot so that Jisung wouldn't struggle when he wasn't there. The first vial - one with a purple lid - contained succinylcholine, which was supposed to paralyse their muscles and make it easier for Chenle to do what he needed to do. The drug was particularly great as it was the sort that was virtually undetectable in the body unless they were searching for it, so it wouldn't make it overly clear how much he'd planned it out. On top of that, he had the usual ones that they used to knock their victims unconscious, in blue and red vials respectively, plus some lethal drugs for the off-chance that his parents ended up surviving the initial attacks.

Finally, there was the one vial that would hold his entire plan together - a green vial containing tetrodotoxin. It was a huge risk, if he was being honest. Jisung's usual dealer for lethal and paralysis-inducing drugs had carefully calculated the exact amount of the drug that Chenle would need to take in order to leave him appearing dead for several days, based on his height and weight. Of course, it was still highly lethal, though, so he was forced to accept the fact that there was still a chance of death. It was especially the case with the particular plan that he was going for, but it was a risk that he was willing to take under the current circumstances. If he was going to die from the injection, at least he would be free.

He made sure to plan out the day absolutely perfectly so that he wouldn't have to worry about it messing up, though. His father was arriving home an hour before his mother, and so he's decided to make it as quick as possible. Of course, his father still wasn't his main target so he wanted to make his death easy. **It was the maid's day off, so he didn't need to worry about her getting in the way, and so he ended up making it nice and easy with a prompt injection of the sleeping drug whilst his father was sat watching television, followed soon after by succinylcholine, and then a quick cut to the front of his throat. He hoped that it wouldn't hurt him too much and that he would die quickly but for the first time since he started killing, he couldn't bring himself to watch him bleed out. The thought of watching him die was something that made Chenle's stomach churn. As a result, he decided that it was best just to walk away for a while before returning, then returned before his mother was due to get home so that he could check his pulse.**

Thankfully, that was the end of his father's life and he didn't have to worry about him anymore. Chenle pressed a gentle kiss to the top of his head, making sure to keep his eyes closed so that he didn't have the image of his father's body soaked in his own blood as his final memory of him. It left him feeling upset, but it was inevitable that his father had to lose his life under the current circumstances.

Then came the wait for his mother to get home. He was rather nervous about it, but he made sure to be sat doing his homework whilst he was waiting for her so that he had an excuse to get her to go over to him. He could feel his heart pounding hard in his chest and his palms getting sweaty, especially as it got closer to the time she was due to arrive back. The needle was on the seat next to him and he was left shakily writing down the answers to the questions in his notebook in hopes that it would help him to calm down ready for her arrival.

It still felt as if his heart was stopping when he heard the front door open. Suddenly his heart was in his throat and all of his preparation quickly went out of the window. She called out to his father as she entered the house and he watched as she stared at the back of his head for a moment before calling out again, slightly louder. "Papa is asleep," Chenle said quietly, and he was so thankful that she instantly seemed to be concerned about having perhaps woken him up. There was a long pause where she continued to stare at him before she decided that he was probably still asleep and so moved through to the kitchen. Chenle waited until she had finished making herself a drink, and then finally figured that it was time to get started on his plan.

"Mama, could you help me with my homework? There's a question that I don't understand." Of course, she was quick to go through to where he was sitting and took a seat next to him. Chenle was relieved that she didn't choose to sit where the needle was, since it would've seemed rather awkward for him to jolt forward and grab something from the seat before she sat. He went through the question with her, dragging it out as much as physically possible in hopes of putting her death off that little bit longer, but then before she could finish up and move on with her day, he quickly grabbed for her wrist and took the needle in hand.

She froze as soon as he grabbed her, and rightfully so. His fingers were pressing into her skin so hard that it must've been terrifying for her right from the start, and it was only made worse when his natural reflex was to dig his fingernails into her flesh. He could feel that he was pressing curved dents into her wrist but by that point, he no longer cared anymore. It needed to be over and done with as soon as physically possible.

Just as expected, it didn't take too long for the drug to kick in. From that moment, he only had a limited amount of time before she would start to asphyxiate, so he needed to get everything he wanted to say out as soon as possible. He didn't know whether he would be able to live with himself if he didn't manage to get most of it out, and so he just hoped that the amount he gave her was good enough to stop her from moving but not kill her too quickly. Chenle quickly decided that the best thing to do was get her into their ending position and get to work so that at least she would have the chance to relax instead of being in a panicked state whilst she was sat up. He helped her to the floor before curling up beside her, leaving the knife up on the chair for the moment so that it didn't scare her into dying quicker.

"I think you know why I have to do this," Chenle told her as he pressed his head against her shoulder. "But I'm going to tell you anyway because I don't think it's fair to leave you guessing if you don't know. Mama, you really upset me by making me stay in the house so much. It was driving me crazy but you didn't care, and it ended up almost getting my boyfriend killed." He shifted his position on the floor so that he would be able to see her expression, despite knowing full well that it wouldn't have changed even if she was absolutely distraught that he'd had a boyfriend. "I bet you weren't expecting that, were you? I don't have a photo of him, but he's really beautiful. We used to share a bed with each other, and we even cuddled. He made me happy but you almost snatched that away from me for good."

There was silence again as he stared at her with sorrow in his eyes. He didn't really know what to say now that he was faced with the reality that he was essentially talking to himself, but after just a few seconds, he was able to start improvising again. "I know how much you wanted me to have a girlfriend, but you don't know how happy he made me. It was like my chest was going to explode every time he kissed me and he was the first person, other than the maid, to help me wash my back in the shower. So I trust him a lot and know that he's going to come and help me to get out of this situation." This time, though, he couldn't bring himself to look at her and instead pressed his face against the curve of her neck. He could feel her racing pulse against his cheek when he pressed down firmly enough, which was just showing him that he didn't have much time to finish what he was going to say, if nothing else. At that point, he promptly decided that he needed to get on with it.

"I've written my suicide note so that when emergency services arrive, they'll think that I'm dead. But it's going to be a real-life Romeo and Juliet story instead. Except Jisung knows that I'm alive and his friend in the morgue is helping me to get back to him. Then we're going to spend the rest of our lives together. Are you happy about the fact that I won't be dying, Mama?" No answer came, but he was okay with that. He felt satisfied that he'd gotten most of it out of the way by that point, and he wouldn't have even been all that bothered if he wasn't able to get the final bit out.

That was when he decided that he would get onto that little bit and hope that she lived through his explanation. It was about his time whilst he was away, starting with the fact that his boyfriend abducted him and was going to kill him because he did stupid things for his parents' attention, all the way through to his kills. He told her about the first time that he and Jisung kissed, about the way that their relationship sometimes started to get more mature - such as when Jisung's hormones got the better of him and he ended up kissing Chenle's neck, or when they started to discuss their future together - and what their living conditions were like. He went through the details of the kills that they'd done together and the way that Jisung taught him how to stop being so scared of blood. That had certainly helped when he took his father's life, although he didn't get to see the blood and he was very glad that his mother didn't have to see it either. If there was one thing that he'd come to realise since he started helping with the kills, it was that blood tended to get messy and when there was a personal connection with the victim, it just made it a lot harder to see that sort of thing.

 **By the time he had finished, Chenle was certain that she was almost dead. He gave her pulse another quick check and found that her heart was still beating, but it was incredibly weak by that point. That was when he decided to put her out of her misery by taking the knife from the chair and quickly stabbing it underneath her ribs before he had the chance to change his mind over it. He didn't want to cause her too much pain by stabbing her in the stomach, and he certainly wasn't cruel to stab her in the heart, even if they didn't always get on, but it was still incredibly difficult to take her life like that.** "I love you, Mama," Chenle whispered, in hopes that it would be the last thing that she heard in her final moments, and then he made sure to stay by her side until he was absolutely certain that she was gone.

Then it was time to tie it all up.

Chenle grabbed his phone and made sure to text the number that Jisung gave him in order to make it seem realistic for him to come over to his house. At least that way, if the police asked him why he turned up, he would have evidence to show that he hadn't killed them all and staged it like a suicide. From that point, he swallowed back the tetrodotoxin, making sure to leave a little bit in the vial since he was planning on taking the additional risk once it was in his system, and then promptly laid on the floor next to his mother again.

**The knife was promptly removed from her torso and wiped off on her shirt so that he didn't end up contaminating his own wounds, and then he proceeded to cut four neat lines into his wrists before finally stabbing the knife straight into his own thigh. It took everything he had not to cry out from the pain as the burning sensation started to take over his body, and then finally he felt his body starting to grow weak from the toxins as the blood started to ooze from the fresh wounds.**

The last thought that ran through his mind before he blacked out was one of desperation that the blood loss wouldn't kill him before Jisung found him and managed to stop the blood flow. That was the biggest risk of the entire plan, and frankly he was terrified that it was going to be the thing that meant that all of their planning was for nothing. If he died from that, he might as well have just taken his life without even making those plans for his future with Jisung.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So we're almost finished with this one, and whilst it seemed as if it would map it all out towards the next chapter, there's a huge issue with the use of tetrodotoxin. It's more toxic than cyanide and it only requires a tiny dose to kill when it's taken orally, nevermind through injection. Even though it's all been calculated carefully, it severely affects biological and chemical function in the body, so there's still a huge chance of death. It's the closest he'd be able to get to the drugs that are described in plays, where a person is in a near-dead state for a few days.
> 
> Thank you for reading!! <3


	18. Cut It Out

Chenle's faked death was so convincing that Jisung didn't even know what to do with himself when he first found his body.

He had to force his legs to move so that he could hide the vials before going over to wrap his hands tightly around the cuts so that the blood flow would slow down. He was concerned that the reduction in blood pressure would result in him dying for real, since Chenle hadn't discussed that part of the plan with him and, as a result, he didn't think to ask his friend whether the dose needed to be adjusted to account for that. It was a bother, since he had the knife sticking out of his thigh still, but Jisung figured that it would sort itself out if he left the blade where it was. Removing it would only cause further complications, and could possibly take his life quicker.

For the moment, time stood still for Jisung. There was no telling whether he was going to make it through that day, knowing that there was a chance that his boyfriend had actually succeeded in taking his life. That thought ripped apart every part of his being. He would essentially be in a purgatory stage for a week or so, until he knew for sure whether Chenle was coming back. Of course, if he'd killed himself, Jisung knew that he would be quick to follow; after all, Chenle's existence was the only thing keeping him going for the most part, and losing him meant losing a huge part of himself. It all seemed very Romeo and Juliet, but after having someone around for so long, as his only friend and love, losing Chenle would destroy him.

As much as it seemed ridiculous to take his own life if his boyfriend had screwed up his escape plan, especially seeing as he managed to live for so long without him, Jisung knew that it was something that had to be done.

His taste of paradise, in which he had someone to love him and help him with his job, had left him emotionally numb whenever he was alone. He forgot to eat now that he didn't have a hungry Chenle there to prepare dinner for them before he got home from work. He sometimes forgot to shower for days on end, until he could feel the oils starting to build up in his hair. He was generally unwell and had poor coping skills now that it was just him again.

It took a while for the cuts to start clotting, even when Jisung was clutching them tightly in his hands. They were relatively deep but not enough to sever his blood vessels. Jisung was very careful when he pulled his hands away, and he made sure to monitor the wounds to see if any more blood would trickle from gaps in the scabs. At that point, he took out his phone and called emergency services, then waited for them to ask for more details.

"I... I just found my friend's body in the kitchen of his house, and I think he might be dying." Jisung was surprised at how much his voice shook as he spoke, and he knew right away that it was going to be a struggle to refrain from crying. As much as they'd gone through the plan so many times, everything changed when his hands were covered in his boyfriend's blood as he clutched cooling skin in tight fists. It was an experience that he'd never hoped to have in his life, and he still really didn't like the thought of it, even though it'd already happened. It was in that moment that he realised his entire world could potentially come crashing down all at once, and he knew for sure that it was reflected in his voice.

Of course, emergency services were straight over to the house and promptly dealt with the bodies in an appropriate manner. It was clear right from the start that Chenle's father had been killed instantly, and there was no way of saving him now that his throat had been cut and he'd bled out rapidly. Likewise, Chenle's mother had ended up passing away before they could do anything to save her, too. They were sending her tissue off to be assessed, but it was thought that she'd ended up dying of additional complications on top of the stab wounds. The investigators who joined them at the house pointed out that there was no sign of a struggle whatsoever, and she was already laid on the floor when she was stabbed. That was suggesting that she was given some sort of drug to paralyse or kill her prior to the stabbing.

Jisung was amazed at how quickly they managed to coin on to those sorts of things. It was the sort of things that he'd expected would need a lot more time and perhaps even an autopsy, yet the investigators were incredibly quick to recognise how Chenle must've killed his mother. They managed to find the syringe on one of the dining room seats, and that gave them a reason to believe that Chenle had wanted to stop her from struggling, or even feeling much at all, when he got to work.

Whilst they continued with the task of photographing and examining the scene some more, Jisung was taken away to a separate room in order to discuss everything that he knew about the situation. He made sure to follow the exact story that they'd discussed, going into detail about how he received a text, asking him to visit his friend's house, and he immediately grew to be worried. After all, he'd not been allowed to see Chenle properly for a while and then suddenly he received a message to ask him to just turn up without having to directly ask for Chenle's mother's permission before he turned up. It was suspicious and he was wary of the situation, but then again, he really needed to make sure that his friend was okay.

He made sure to go into further detail about Chenle's strained relationship with his parents. That was what he focused on for a lot of the discussion. They stopped him from going to school and he wasn't allowed to see his friends anymore. He and Chenle met secretly a few days before his death, as the maid could confirm, and Chenle expressed how hurt he was about the fact that he couldn't leave the house when he wanted to. Chenle cherished his freedom, and he was caught like a bird in a cage. Of course, his mother could never find out about that sort of thing, and he had to be incredibly careful to avoid slipping up and revealing that he saw Jisung behind his mother's back.

Jisung had been chatting with them for a full hour when they finally brought up the note that Chenle had left. He hadn't noticed it when he first came into the house and at first, he believed that perhaps the emergency services staff planted it there to try to catch him out, but when he looked at it, it was very clearly written in Chenle's handwriting. It was addressed to "My Beautiful Pork", and it was clear that they couldn't figure out who exactly that was. The look on Jisung's face when he heard that was everything that they needed, though; it was handed over to him, since it had already been photographed and put on record, and he was given the opportunity to read it there and then.

 _"My Beautiful Pork,"_ it started, _"My beautiful, perfect boyfriend - I would just like to take a moment to apologise for all of the stress that I must be causing you right now. I know we agreed that I would fake my own death and then we would elope together, but I decided at the last minute that maybe it would be easier if I was dead for real. Before you get all sad and start crying, I want you to read this carefully and think about everything I'm telling you right now._

_I was going to tell them that we were boyfriends today because I thought that perhaps they would take it well, but before I could do it, I got scared and guessed that it would ruin the family's image if people found out about my attraction to other boys. Promise me that you won't think any less of me for not going ahead and saying it to them. I'm trying to look out for your future as well as my own; if someone hurt you because they found out about us being a couple, I couldn't live with myself anymore. Not that I'm going to live anymore anyway, though - you know, with the whole suicide thing._

_Fallen victim to my own personal circumstances, I guessed that it would be fairer on everyone if I was gone for good. Please don't think that it was anything you could've possibly helped; I know that you'll blame yourself anyway, but I couldn't stand the thought of making you think that my blood is on your hands. Wait up late one night and my spirit might come to your side to let you know that I'm still here for you, making sure that everything in life serves you well. For as long as you keep me close, I'll be there to protect you with all of my might, just as I did back when we were together. Me and you are going to be the most beautiful couple when you finally join me in heaven, so please don't go falling for any other boy back on Earth._

_My heart is yours forever.  
Love, your biggest fan and favourite boyfriend._

For a moment, Jisung could feel his heart starting to race in his chest. His head was swimming as he tried to take each word in, but it didn't seem real at all. The more he read it, the more ridiculous it seemed. It couldn't be true that Chenle decided to go ahead and take his life when they had made such an elaborate plan together. He had a thousand feelings hit at once and he didn't know what to do with himself anymore.

It was just made worse by the fact that when he looked up for the first time since he was taken to the side for questioning, he saw that Chenle's body had been moved. All that remained were blood stains all over the wooden floor. He'd been declared dead, which Jisung had expected anyway, but it was surreal seeing the house in that state now that he was on his way to the morgue. That was the moment that made it all feel real; he had to look away again as not to get too upset about the situation, and he was relieved that the police officer didn't ask him any more questions after that. He didn't think that he could bear it, if he was being completely honest.

Jisung honestly struggled to cope with everything that was happening around him from that point onwards. As much as he didn't need to spend his time with his scientist friends from that point, he made sure to go to them to discuss his problems with the situation. After all, they were aware of the risks that came alongside it and they had warned him about the fact that Chenle could have died from ingesting the toxin, but none of them had been prepared for an intentional suicide either. They were as concerned about the situation, as they could easily prepare for the side effects that came with poisoning, but it was hard to prepare for something that appeared to be a genuine attempt to die.

Most of it, though, was ranting about his feelings. Jisung wasn't taking it well at all. Two of his friends were working on the body, in hopes that it would count for something and bring him back, but they were keeping all of the progress to themselves. They didn't want to create any false hope by pointing out the signs of life, only to have Jisung disappointed when the poisoning ended up taking his boyfriend out. Then there was the fact that he couldn't figure out why Chenle would leave a note like that, addressed to him specifically, when he could've just written a general note to anyone who came across it. Obviously he'd texted Jisung to ask him to visit and so it made sense for him to leave a note specifically addressed to him, but then again, it was relying entirely on the idea that he was going to be the first one to find it.

It was something that he couldn't get off his mind for a long time. Having his friends keep it hushed just made things worse, since they all knew about his boyfriend's fate whereas he didn't even know if he'd taken a breath big enough to fill his lungs yet. He had a weird sort of bitterness towards his friends for the moment - he knew that they should be trusted to do their job without him getting in the way, but then again, he was trusting another person with Chenle's life. He struggled enough to let him complete murders on his own, nevermind allowing someone to take care of him like that. It was infuriating, to say the least, and he did absolutely everything he could in hopes of finding out any hint of information about his boyfriend's condition, until finally one of his friends cracked under the constant pressure.

"Jisung, I don't mean to be rude, but have you considered that it might have a code?" one of his friends asked him after a particularly long rant about how he didn't understand anything that was happening. He had been a bit nervous about asking, seeing as Jisung was obviously very stressed about the situation, but thankfully it ended up coming out more casually than they had anticipated. "Obviously I'm not supposed to talk to you about this, but I thought it'd be pretty obvious to a guy like you."  
"Why would he do that?" Jisung asked as calmly as he could manage, despite feeling rather irritated by the suggestion. Chenle had no need to code it if he stuck to the original plan, so Jisung knew that something was wrong if he changed it. He didn't know what to expect when he got to the house, and that was generally a sign that Chenle had changed his mind about something and failed to inform him about it. Jisung had seen it before and wasn't prepared to question it when it was so obvious that he'd intended on actually killing himself.

"Well, for starters," the forensic technician began, "It's the most basic code I've ever seen in my entire life, and it's essentially a movie trope by this point. You know, whenever they need some dumb little code, they make sentences from the first word of each sentence. See, if you look at the first word in each sentence from _this_ point onwards, you'll see that it's very obvious. In fact, he makes it particularly clear around this point here. _That_ doesn't sound natural and _that_ is grammatically incorrect." The technician ran his fingertip under those particular lines of the note to show Jisung and gave him a moment to absorb the fact that he'd completely overreacted before continuing.

The speech continued shortly after, though, as not to give Jisung too much time to think of how he wanted to reply. "Secondly, he most likely passed out with his head tilted back so that his airway was fully extended to keep him alive for a while. We worked that out from the way that he had absolutely no signs of respiratory failure when he got to us and we're fairly certain that his airways were fully open, or else he would've probably been in a much worse state. When he came to us, he was covered in his own vomit, which certainly wasn't there when he was put into the bag. With tetrodotoxin poisoning, symptoms can emerge over the four hours that follow the original poisoning, and he somehow managed to work it out perfectly so that he would have help before the respiratory arrest hit him. He's a smart boy and he deserves credit for managing to avoid killing himself."

As much as Jisung could try to argue with that logic, it was clear that he was just going to fail. There were other things that he hadn't noticed either. For starters, Chenle had probably written the note to scare him, since it would ensure that his reaction would be genuine when the police arrived. If they thought that he knew what had "killed" Chenle, they could have quite easily arrested him on the spot whilst they searched for evidence to prove that he killed Chenle. On top of that, it took the suspicion off Jisung if they thought that they'd planned to fake it and it'd fallen through; it wasn't something that was usually said in suicide notes and directly informed him that it was "real", so they were less likely to think that it was faked now.

On top of that, he was absolutely certain that if Chenle actually wanted to die, he would've cut deeper into his arms so that Jisung was unable to stop the blood flow from just holding the wounds. It was so much easier like that and it was clear that Chenle had the guts to do that if he'd already cut his arms and stabbed deep into his thigh. Either he decided against it at the last minute and went shallow with the cuts - which wasn't likely if he made multiple - or he wasn't aiming to die.

Jisung suddenly felt a strange feeling in the pit of his stomach. He realised that, in the heat of everything that was happening around him, he had neglected to put his trust in the people who knew what they were doing. After all, even if there were things that Chenle had done aside from the plan, it was still planned out very well. They arranged it in a way that would allow Chenle to get to the morgue very soon after he'd been poisoned, since the staff there would be expected to do their checks on his body before he was put to rest. They had everything there, ready to do their bit to help increase his chances of survival. Everything had been measured out absolutely perfectly and the chances of Chenle getting every tiny drop of the toxin in his mouth when he swallowed it was near enough impossible, so he couldn't have even taken the entire vial in full.

He felt stupid. Of course it was going to work out for them in the end; it always worked out and they always managed to pull through, even when everything was getting rough.

The fear washed away from him in an instant, and only got better when the friend took him through to see Chenle. A little part of him felt bitter that he hadn't been able to see him beforehand, but then again, he knew that it would have near enough killed him to see Chenle's perfect features looking so still and doll-like. That was a sight that he certainly didn't need to be imprinted in his mind, and frankly he much preferred to remember his boyfriend in pretty clothes and with a sweet smile on his face, rather than laying in a capsule as they treated him. He was still seeing that, obviously, but it was a lot nicer to see him like that now that he knew that there was hope. Now that his friend had let the cat out of the bag, they had no choice but to show Jisung what they were going to help his boyfriend to stay alive, and although they warned him that he still looked dead, he was recovering better than they had expected.

The following few days were painful. Jisung was still mostly in the dark about everything that was happening around him, since his friends were still concerned about giving him false hope, but at least by that point Chenle had an obvious heartbeat. It was a lot stronger than it had been when Jisung first found him, and his breaths were starting to make his chest rise and fall. It was only a little bit, but it was a start. Chenle had been moved to a warmer place, in hopes that it would aid his recovery, and he was frequently receiving charcoal treatment, in hopes that it would draw the toxins out quicker. His body was taking to the treatment particularly well, and Jisung was unbelievably thankful for the fact that he'd managed to pull through.

It was going to take a long time for things to get back to normal, whatever that was, but it was something that Jisung was now willing to wait for. The chances of everything working out were high, and he knew right away that whilst near-death experiences weren't ideal, it was just the strange sort of thing that came hand-in-hand with such an unconventional romance.

For now, all he could do was sit with Chenle when he was allowed to. He could stroke his hand and occasionally kiss his forehead, talk to him about the bunnies he'd seen in a local pet shop and how he was hoping to buy one for Chenle as a gift for pulling through, and sometimes even change his clothes. He required sponge-baths and lots of attention as he gradually started to come to, and then eventually after three days, his eyes opened.

Jisung was over the moon, to say the least. It was only momentary flickering of his eyes and Jisung couldn't be absolutely certain that it was going to be something that his boyfriend remembered when he finally woke up properly, but it was the moment that ended up giving him the hope that he needed to make it through the rest of the week until they were able to be together properly again, as boyfriends who loved each other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that it's taken so long to get this chapter out - I hoped to get it out after work yesterday but alas, I've worked 24 hours over the past three days and then had to deal with two fires in my apartment, so that slowed things down significantly. On top of that, I didn't want to rush this chapter too much so it's almost 1500 words longer than the previous chapters!! Admittedly, it still feels a bit rushed in some places, even though I did try to pad it out a bit, but hopefully it's not too bad!!
> 
> Thank you for staying with me through this!! <3


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